Warriors in salary cap investigation

[Super Cronk]

Foxsports.com.au

THE NRL has confirmed an investigation into New Zealand Warriors' salary cap position.

NRL chief executive David Gallop said rugby league's national governing body and the club's management were examining a "number of previously undisclosed issues relating to past seasons and possibly affecting the 2006 season".

The Warriors underwent a significant restructure of senior management positions last year.

Gallop said the current management of the Auckland-based club was offering its full cooperation and had opted to make news of the investigation public.

"They are to be commended for their attitude to date but any breach of the cap remains a serious matter," Gallop said.

"It is not normal for us to comment on an investigation until all findings are completed but in this instance the Warriors have chosen to go public with the issue in the interests of transparency."

The NRL had raised with the previous management in November that it wished to conduct a pre-season audit with the club for 2006.

Preparing for that audit, the current management raised a number of matters which have uncovered "potential salary cap issues".

"That is a reflection of their intention to see the matter concluded but again it does not negate the need to ensure that appropriate action is taken should any breaches be confirmed," Gallop said.


"The salary cap has brought significant benefit to the game in recent years and it is important for all clubs and all fans that we continue to rigorously enforce it.

"There are too many positives going into the 2006 season for us not to ensure these matters are addressed as quickly as possible."

[Dakink]

Just what they need - if they had fallen foul what the penalty be, remembering the severity of the Dogs penalty. I guess it all depends on what exactly they have done and by how much.

[DeeGan]

Letting this type of talent go: Stacey Jones (UCT),Iafeta Paleaaesina (Wigan),Tevita Latu (Sharks, 2yrs), Francis Meli (St Helens), Monty Betham (Wakefield) and Karl Temata (London) starts making sense now doesn't it. Sure the players in question may have floated the idea though I don't remember much fight from New Zealand.

[Dakink]

Perhaps they had no financial ability to fight!

[Eel 33]

Mmmmmmmmmm!!! Interesting. Well done Warriors Management for coming out into the open and not letting rumours ruin the start of another fantastic season. If the Warriors are over the cap, the previous management ought to be ashamed of themselves.

[DeeGan]

Perhaps they had no financial ability to fight!

Umm...that was my point Dakink. It all makes sense in seeing these big name players leaving with little fight from the management team.

They it seems were backed into a corner/

[DIEHARD]

Warriors under scrutiny

New Zealand Warriors will be docked up to six competition points and hit with a huge fine after rugby league's latest salary cap scandal was uncovered yesterday.

After owning up to player-payment "discrepancies", the Warriors will be the first team in 98 years of premiership league history to start the season on less than zero.

The Auckland-based team has been caught in the biggest player-payment scandal since the Bulldogs were stripped of the minor premiership in 2002.

The list of rorts included:

- OFFERING stars highly-paid employment after they retire;

- FUNNELING payments to players through club owner Cullen Investments;

- PAYING for player agents to fly to and from New Zealand whenever they wanted to;

- HELPING players secure commercial arrangements and then only partially declaring them to the NRL.

Warriors chairman Maurice Kidd last night indicated he would fight any move to strip the club of points before the season started.

"It's obviously within their powers to do that but we wouldn't be happy with that," Kidd said.

Asked if he thought the points should instead be deducted from the Warriors' 2005 total - in the game's record books - Kidd said: "That's right. We haven't got into those issues yet."

But NRL chief executive David Gallop countered: "While it's too early to speculate on a penalty, all clubs and fans have known competition points are in jeopardy when breaches strike at the heart of the competition's fairness."

Former Warriors chief executive Mick Watson is high on the list of interviewees the club is chasing in its investigation. The NRL may also seek to speak to him.

When informed of the drama yesterday, Bulldogs chief executive Malcolm Noad said: "If it's a systematic approach to circumvent the salary cap, our fans would expect the NRL to take very stern action."

NRL salary cap auditor Ian Schubert first got wind of the anomalies at the end of last season, when the previous administration led by Watson was departing.

Schubert warned Watson he would be conducting a full audit in early 2006.

The new Warriors hierarchy, led by Kidd, then decided to go on the front foot. They told the NRL a week ago they had found irregularities themselves.

"The chief executive (Wayne Scurrah) called me last Monday and said 'I think we've got a problem'," Kidd said. "He was preparing for the NRL auditor ... they came across things that looked a bit, uh, unusual."

It is understood the club is at risk of a $100,000 fine, although admitting their mistakes will be the one mitigating factor.

The Daily Telegraph

[DIEHARD]

The players: Club will face points loss

New Zealand Warriors players will be asked to take short-term pay cuts so the club is under the salary cap in time for the premiership kickoff.

Chief executive Wayne Scurrah and his offsider, former All Black coach John Hart, called a crisis meeting with the team on the Gold Coast yesterday to tell the players about the impending controversy.

The Warriors are caught in the middle of a salary cap scandal which is the biggest since the Bulldogs systematic rorting which stunned the code in 2002.

Chairman Maurice Kidd last night insisted no contractual details were discussed during those talks.

But The Daily Telegraph understands the club has assured the NRL it will be under the cap by the time it opens the season against Melbourne at Ericsson Stadium on March 12.

That means players being asked to delay some payments, as they are often asked to do at other clubs and as the Bulldogs did after their salary cap imbroglio.

In 2004 the Warriors imported four high-profile players from Australia, including national representatives Steve Price and Ruben Wiki.

It is the second salary cap breach by the Warriors after being fined $100,000 in 2001.

"It's too early to tell what we may or may not have to do in order to comply with the cap," Kidd said.

"But clearly, if we're going to kick off in the competition, we've got to be in compliance with the cap."

In further intrigue, Kidd said: "All our legally-binding contracts will be honoured".

That suggests players who received promises and handshake agreements over future employment and endorsement opportunities could be in trouble.

After the club previously going bankrupt and failing to pay players, some stars spoke up and asked if their contracts would be honoured.

"Wayne Scurrah showed up and told them there is an investigation going on into what the club have admitted to," agent Jim Banaghan said.

"They said the players had nothing to worry about and they wanted to speak to them all individually."

A look at the club's gains and losses for the summer gives a hint of the position they were in.

The Warriors made one of the biggest off-season recruitment strikes of recent years during the summer of 2004-05 when they snared international forwards Price and Wiki.

The Daily Telegraph

[DIEHARD]

The fallout: Price wants more info

New Zealand Warriors captain Steve Price last night said pay cuts had not been discussed with players at a week-long training camp on the Gold Coast.

"We were only told about it today and we don't know too much about it," Price, who went through a similar situation as captain of the Bulldogs in 2003, said.

"We're going to want to see what is happening before we talk about it.

"It's only just started so to say something now would be stupid because we don't even know what's happening or how big or small this thing is.

"What you've been told and what I've been told is probably very different."

Price appeared to be unfazed by suggestions the Warriors could start the season on minus-six premiership points.

"It's hard for them in Sydney to know what's happening between our club and the NRL. No one knows for sure," he said in Ipswich where the Warriors development squad was preparing to play an Ipswich Jets side in a pre-season trial.

Price said team morale was "fine". "We trained today and it wasn't really talked about," he said.

Veteran prop Ruben Wiki said he did not want to discuss the salary cap situation. "That's for the club management," he said.

Price and Wiki were the two highest profile recruits to the club last season.
Price has already been through the game's biggest salary cap scandal when he was at the Bulldogs.

Coincidentally the Warriors play the Bulldogs in a trial at Carrara on Saturday night.

The Courier-Mail

[DeeGan]

Steve Price must be thinking "NOT AGAIN!!!!"

This is going to be a well drawn out story not needed before round one of 2006.

[Queenslander]

Steve Price must be thinking "NOT AGAIN!!!!"

This is going to be a well drawn out story not needed before round one of 2006.

Yeah the poor bloke, its a shame to see him and another team that he captains get dragged through the mud.

[Super Cronk]

On Sports tonight they said there were reports that the warriors are upto $1 million over the cap, and have been over since 2004.

I want to know why the NRL didnt pick up on this and the warriors had to dob themselves in.

[Titanium_BD1103]

Oh my, NOT AGAIN.. ... and to poor Pricey... he doesn't deserve this..

I think the reason Cronk, and this is just my opinion, that they NRL don't pick up on these things is that they are done using backdoor schemes, and the NRL only pick up on those things when they start really investigating a club, something that takes a lot of time and effort. Normally the NRL just spot scan the accounts and make sure everything looks okay...

From this mornings reading, looks like the Former owners of the Warriors were doing the same things as the Bulldogs in the late 90's and early 00's, and that is very hard to find out. They were giving payments to players away from the NRL through business trusts and property schemes, which the NRL has no access to, only ASIC and the Tax Office has access to that data..

This is a shame for the NRL, it didn't need to get pulled into this... I hope that justice is served on this one... not that I want to see the Warriors lose any points.. .. but I want clubs to realise once and for all that this stuff is not on.. ... and I want the judgement to be fair too..

[Dakink]

The one silver lining is that the current Warriors admin have come totally clean - when they didnt need to, in fact the NRL advised them they didnt have to make it public but they chose to in the interests of transparancey. They arent hiding anything now - I guess they are hoping that by doing that they may reduce the penalty from past crimes on the current batch of players.

[Eel 33]

When you think about it, they'll only really start on -2 points. The points from the bye don't have to be given. It works out the same way.