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NRL intervention looms as Wests Tigers chief Shane Richardson threatens to walk amid infighting
The NRL faces a crisis as Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson delivers an ultimatum that could trigger player departures and administrative intervention at the embattled joint venture.
Andrew Webster
4 min read
December 7, 2025 - 5:24PM
Wests Tigers chief executive Shane Richardson will quit his job on Monday unless the ARL Commission appoints an independent administrator to save the embattled joint venture – something chairman Peter V’landys is strongly considering.
“We are investigating the powers we have in this type of situation, including appointing an administrator,” V’landys told The Australian.
Richardson has been weighing up his future since the Tigers’ majority shareholder, Holman Barnes Group, last week
sacked the four independent directors it had only appointed in January.
Those close to Richardson say he’s “done”, fed up with the political infighting that has held back the club for more than a decade and a smear campaign levelled against him and senior staff.
Reports on Friday that the NRL integrity unit was investigating claims from a disgruntled former employee that Richardson had paid money to a digital, branding, and marketing company run by his son have only furthered his belief that it is time to leave.
It is understood Richardson will argue a large amount of the money relates to the consultancy fee he was paid while interim chief executive from December 2023 until June 2024.
He started a four-year contract on July 2, 2024, with a clause stipulating he would receive a full payout if independent directors weren’t on the board. He has 2½ years remaining on his deal. HBG last week discharged the four independents, including chairman and former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell, plummeting the club into chaos.
Richardson is expected to resign on Monday afternoon after addressing his staff, many of whom he had enticed to the club, although V’landys’s intervention at the 11th hour could change his mind.
“We are going to talk to both the independent directors and
Holman Barnes,” V’landys said. “We are certainly not happy with the instability this has caused.”
It wouldn’t be the first time head office has stepped in to save a club from itself. In 2015, the NRL took ownership of the Gold Coast Titans in the wake of a cocaine supply scandal. They were placed in voluntary administration after realising they could not meet their financial obligations, including paying the salaries of staff and players.
Two years earlier, the NRL ordered the Tigers install an independent board in exchange for financial support as the club teetered on the brink of insolvency. A new board, headed by media executive Marina Go, was formed the next year.
