Salary cap accusations just the latest management dramas at Eels

The saddest thing about this whole affair is that out of all the clubs that could try and cheat, Parramatta have one of the least needs to do so. The second CBD of Sydney with all of the financial potential that suggests, insanely passionate supporters, a legendary legacy still within the living memory of most of their supporters, a huge junior nursery... I mean, you would have to be at the pinnacle of incompetence to even need to try and cheat with all of those advantages.

Mismanagement of the cap and in particular use of TPA's aside are we really happy that the salary cap + TPAs provides that level playing field we are all led to believe exists? I know I'm not happy that in effect there are clubs out there who don't have the TPA advantages then others do therefore have to use their salary cap to have any hope of competing for players that can sign with other clubs that don't have to use their cap all because they have greater access to the business end of town. Surely we have to get to a stage where clubs become fiscally responsible for the cost of maintaining their playing roster instead of being governed under the illusion that is the current system?

Audit processes aren't going to uncover efforts designed to circumvent those processes. That is the problem with fixed rules, morally flexible people come up with ways around them. Remember the audit process uncovers breeches that are intentionally designed to avoid the audit all the time. If audit processes immediately prevented fraud then you wouldn’t see any example of securities fraud in the developed world. The issue is every audit process relies at some point on assuming the other side is not deliberately trying to defraud you. You cannot build a system that doesn’t have that assumption built in. If you can you have just revolutionised the entire global financial system and probably are putting your talents to poor use by monitoring the NRL. For example to be able to 100% capture something like the offering of tickets as inducement you would need the NRL to physically check the ID of every person sitting in a team allocated seat and then run a comprehensive back ground check, then have the club under constant surveillance to make sure the ticket recipients do not have any commercial interaction with team representatives. Even then to avoid the prospect of middle men you’d have to monitor every person with commercial contact and their contacts etc etc until you’ve basically got the entire planet under surveillance to be sure. That is the only way you can 100% guarantee that isn’t happening and even then you’ve got the human error element. The process of the audit is to try and raise red flags where they may not be telling the truth, but the effectiveness of that can never be guaranteed. Journos are typically better than whistleblowers people often talk out of school in a manner they won’t with a regulator as it avoid self incrimination along with the idea of dobbing in your mates and it comes with the added bonus of being a big dog that has been a source for the story.

I'm intrigued by how all the significant salary cap breaches are never discovered by the NRL's own audit process but by journalists uncovering stuff or most likely being leaked to. Have to seriously question whether the NRL process is just for show rather than a serious attempt to police the cap. The evidence suggests it is certainly not too rigorous.

So this club is still allowed to field a team in the competition and do more damage to other clubs . Just like the Storm did. Makes you wonder ! Any other teams want to confess to anything?

I hear now that players are involved receiving goods paid for by the football club. Oh dear oh dear what is, was going on at parramatta. As a fan and an accountant I'm in disbelief as to complete disregard for governance?? I hope central sort this out.m

Nice article Mary, with the term ' Fish rots from the head ' you automatically think of the Eels. There Corporate Governance has been an utter shambles for years. The Brian Smith/Fitzgerald era looks a dynasty compared to the rabble the Club has been for 6 years. I'd be moving heaven and earth to get Sterlo involved on the Board along with a raft of acomplished Business men / women. I'd be paying Bellamy whatever he wants to become coach. Get the Front Office right and appoint a quality coach. Do that and this Club could become a powerhouse as they should be.

I thought it was more recent, however an article has him quitting in 2009?

Brilliant!

Just look at thee Broncos mate, there up to there neck in it there is still no explanation why Andrew Gee left so Quickly JACK

ahh, Spagnolo "An internal audit, run by a former detective from the Major Crime Squad and assisted by IT personnel, found that 186 fraudulent memberships were either created or had their joining date altered, giving the impression those people had been on the books for three years and rendering them able to attend and vote at the board election on May 11 last year. http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/parramatta-eels/parramatta-officials-roy-spagnolo-and-bob-bentley-linked-to-eels-membership-rort-20140911-10fl4e.html

Given the indescretions were 2 seasons ago and everything (hopefully) for this year reviewed with a microscope by the NRL I'd like to be able to assume that this season is OK. This all goes back to Ricky Stuart canning 12 players and having Parra be responsible for some/all contract payments for those players into 2013 that had contracts in 2014 whether they were at the club or not, all the infringements occurred (my understanding) occurred in 2014 and have those same contracts have now expired and are not a factor.

Hey Barry, I think it's only one lot of 4 points suspended so far, who knows what could/will come from any new evidence the board was not only complicit but open sought how to get around any rules in a board meeting....which was minuted !!!!! That's beyond stupid It's amazing but yes rorting the cap by this extent to still finish mediocre. Then pay the penalty when things are looking up....the irony isn't lost on me.

Hate to say it Chop but surely the penalty if this fresh round of charges is proved correct will be much more than four points. Weren't the four points from last time suspended? If that's the case that will be the penalty enacted for the last lot, with a fresh penalty for these latest charges. The worst part is these guys have been rorting to finish 16th, 14th, 11th, etc but this side that seems a genuine top 8 chance will be the one carrying the can. And the fans. Always the fans. Despite the dogs and eels rivalry I really feel for Parra fans.

THIS "3 years wait to vote" It is the same at most clubs. This prevents what is a "political term" called branch stacking, from coming to fruition! Quite a while ago at Souths in the dark old days when the NRL were trying to force Souths to 1) move our games to the Central Coast. and/or 2) Merge with Cronulla in 2003. There were many NEW members at Souths who suddenly appeared on the books. The membership went from about 8,500 to well over 20,000, practically overnight. These same NEW members in conjunction with a rogue element of current members, against George Piggins and the Board, wanted to take over the Football club and I remember at the time there was a huge outcry on this issue. BUT us members stood up and the Board at the time tried to sign up extra true fans as members and we fought hard to prevent this from happening. What these upstarts didn't know and failed to find out was that in the South Sydney Constitution, you have to be a member for a minimum of 3 years to acquire voting rights and that a minimum of 75% of the vote was required to take over the club. MANY CURRENT MEMBERS didn't know this either! **Any Member only needs to acquire 100 signatures to force an "Extraordinary General Meeting" as to force such a vote! As they did do in the Russell Crowe case in 2006. ALL 100 must have voting rights, BUT some of these 100 member signatures didn't have VOTING RIGHTS to do so. It didn't get to a vote as these ring-ins didn't even have voting rights so they realized they had NO CHANCE! The following year the Membership fell back to about 12,500 members. The rest, as they say, is History!

Grew up played and been blue and gold Parra all my life .But I can understand when members get disallusioned with what's been happening at board level at Parra .This why we need them to be above board at all times .Their has been some good suggestions here on the roar maybe they should have a read might in lighten them in how they might fix their cluster of errors ,couldn't do any worse than what's been going on .

Ironic much?

How do you prove independence though? It's all well and good to not allow tickets on the ballot papers, but they are free to provide material saying "...by voting for A B & C in the election you're getting a consistency of approach and common agreement on the strategic direction of the club going forward..." Personally I'd love to see a full set of independent directors with no existing interest or association with the club but there's more chance of me being voted on the board.

It will definitely have an effect on the players if all of a sudden they're on 0 after 2 wins....