? Tigers open secret ?
Wests Tigers officials spent yesterday afternoon locked in meetings with lawyers as they defiantly march headlong into a fight with the NRL over its decision to fine the club and deregister chief executive Justin Pascoe for his handling of Robbie Farah’s acrimonious departure.
Farah, who returned to the Tigers this season, initially made his exit at the end of 2016 following months of instability caused by his soured relationship with former coach Jason Taylor. As part of his exit, Farah was promised an ambassadorial role when his playing career came to an end.
That job offer has now come back to haunt the Tigers. The deal, worth approximately $600,000 over four years, was an open secret in the NRL, Farah and the club having referred to it on numerous occasions in the media.
Yet the NRL insists they were unaware of the offer and never received any documentation from the club. **At the same time, the club submitted an application to have Farah’s severance package — he was paid upwards of $1 million to depart — excluded from the salary cap on the grounds that his presence was damaging the Tigers’ reputation and impacting on their ability to attract corporate support.**
**Had the club been successful with that application, they could have removed more than 50 per cent of Farah’s salary from the cap. As it was, the NRL rejected the application but Farah’s departure has come to haunt them nonetheless.**
“When a player moves on for reputational reasons (a club) can apply to the NRL to have money excluded from the salary cap,” chief operating officer Nick Weeks said. “After Robbie left, the club paid him money he was owed under that contract and they approached us to exclude some of those payments on the basis that Robbie was a destabilising influence on the club.
“What they didn’t disclose when they made that statement was that the club had earlier entered into an ambassador agreement to bring him back.”
A series of messages from Pascoe to the club’s general manager of football and Farah’s agent Sam Ayoub formed part of the evidence against the club. In the text messages, it is understood Pascoe suggested the termination agreement and ambassadorial deal were linked.
At one point in September 2016, it is understood he asked Ayoub not to announce the ambassador deal. The NRL frowned upon the negotiations. Aside from the decision to deregister Pascoe, the Tigers were fined $750,000 and will be forced to carry $639,000 on their salary cap in 2019 — the amount Farah stood to earn over the life of the ambassadorial deal.
The Tigers insist the situation was simply a misunderstanding and there was no attempt to circumvent the cap.
Chair Marina Go said the club did not accept the allegations outlined in the breach notice, and rejected the notion that they had breached the NRL rules or that their conduct warranted the sanctions imposed.
Go added that the incident occurred several years ago and the arrangement was entered into years after his playing contract had been signed. In other words, Go said, the club derived no benefit from the arrangement.
The Tigers added in a statement: “The club is shocked with the decision and extremely disappointed in the process.
“It is an arrangement that Wests Tigers had with Robbie that is unrelated to his career as a player. The club does not know if he is going to take it up and Robbie has not indicated his intention return.
“The reason the ambassadorship was offered in November 2015 is that then new CEO Justin Pascoe felt that the club had disrespected Robbie and this was a way to show him the respect that Justin felt he deserved as a life member and club legend due to the overwhelming support Robbie had at the time from members and fans.
“Most importantly Wests Tigers derive absolutely no advantage from this arrangement. It is not tied in any way to Robbie’s playing contract.
“Wests Tigers are particularly concerned about the wrongful attack on the integrity of the club’s CEO. For the last three years Justin has shown nothing but respect for the NRL and the salary cap.”
The salary cap fine threatens to hamper coach Michael Maguire’s start to life at the Tigers, the club likely to have to move players to get their cap in order if the sanctions stand.
BRENT READ SENIOR SPORTS WRITER
Thanks for sharing.
So we didn't even get any cap relief?
The reason for the breach is regarding a future arrangement yet because we sought relief it looks deceptive. Huh.
This just makes it sound more convoluted.
I was under the impression, solely due to Todd's statement, that we did get relief of up to $570k.
So it's basically because Farah is now on significantly less money that is the real issue. That's not really sketchy conduct though.
Farah got the full amount of his previous contract.
In order to determine that he is on significantly less money:
- what is he getting paid
- what is the going rate for a 35 year old hooker who is not Cameron Smith, and cannot perform or look as good as they did when they were 25
