Pascoe sanctioned by the NRL

[Chris]

We screwed up, I get it. When you look at what we did compared to other teams who have systematically cheated with several players over a long period of time, I think the punishment far outweighs the crime. Keep in mind, Farah still hasnt accepted the job. If he does accept it, shouldnt the club be given a chance to advise the NRL of the agreement if/when Farah accepts his role?

 

[Telltails]

Usually not a conspiracy theorist but still think this was brought to Greenburg, and his lynch mobs attention by someone with a cross to bare, and conveniently coincided with the NRL's get tough talk - given all the other much more damaging stuff that has happened of late.
You dont go looking for something if you didnt know it exists, and if Pascoe didnt declare it, then someone else did.
Given the circumstances surrounding the whole issue going in all guns blazing may come back and bite him. Thats what Im hoping for anyway

 

[Harvey]

Pascoe has since been ordered by the NRL to stay away from the club’s Concord base, while Tigers staff are barred from calling their boss.

It is understood Pascoe is now meeting off site with the club’s legal team as part of planning his defence.

Can anyone confirm this. It seems extremely unfair. How is the man meant to defend himself.

This is Nazi like if its true.

In this country you are innocent until proven guilty, where is Justins due process, where is his ability to communicate with his staff and prepare a legal reply.

I thought he was given a notice of INTENT to de register? If that is the case then he should be able to carry on until such time as they actually de register him.

Ive already stated the corruptness i think is involved here but i thought he might at least have a chance to defend himself. _I see now the decision has been made, any case we put to the NRL will be ignored._

Have a good look at those record profits and other figures listed above Tigers fans, how dare he be successful hey.

In rugby league, the presumption of innocence is the domain of alleged rapists and heroes that beat up women

 

[Harvey]

It was an offer. Until it is taken up and remuneration paid, what is the offence.

There was no guaranteed payments, just that an employment opportunity is available when his playing career finishes.

I do like Robbie’s question. If he chooses to do something else with his life & not accept the role, will the NRL refund any fines paid

 

[old_man_tiger]

In other news heard a rumor today that many players from a well connected Sydney club are payed directors for car dealerships in PNG. The club has surprisingly low value official TPAs.

I started to laugh, and the guy telling me made a face. I said "surely you're kidding mate. " He answered "no" and walked off.

I normally wouldn't believe stuff like this but lately who knows.

 

[old_man_tiger]

In fact I'd love to get someone like 4 corners to investigate systematic cheating on the NRL. They are relentless and annoying but effective.

 

[Nelson]

They're pretty shallow thinkers at NRL HQ if they can't see the difference between the harm a player can cause to a club's brand when kicking stones about not playing 1st grade and the benefit a club may derive from having a long-serving, premiership winning player as an ambassador for the club in his life after football. No contradiction, just different situations being treated differently. If that's the NRL's killer point that justifies the massive penalties then it's a very poor one…

 

[Tarl]

🚨 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 in 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

 

[Lauren]

What the heck?
https://mobile.twitter.com/PhilGould15/status/1075886860910485506

 

[851]

In other news heard a rumor today that many players from a well connected Sydney club are payed directors for car dealerships in PNG. The club has surprisingly low value official TPAs.

I started to laugh, and the guy telling me made a face. I said "surely you're kidding mate. " He answered "no" and walked off.

I normally wouldn't believe stuff like this but lately who knows.

This is another reason to take the NRL to court, get them to disclose how a near international side is under the cap and we are not

 

[WT2K]

https://twitter.com/PhilGould15/status/1075886860910485506?s=19

 

[Telltails]

Beautifully played Gus.

 

[Guest]

Pascoe has since been ordered by the NRL to stay away from the club’s Concord base, while Tigers staff are barred from calling their boss.

It is understood Pascoe is now meeting off site with the club’s legal team as part of planning his defence.

Can anyone confirm this. It seems extremely unfair. How is the man meant to defend himself.

This is Nazi like if its true.

In this country you are innocent until proven guilty, where is Justins due process, where is his ability to communicate with his staff and prepare a legal reply.

I thought he was given a notice of INTENT to de register? If that is the case then he should be able to carry on until such time as they actually de register him.

Ive already stated the corruptness i think is involved here but i thought he might at least have a chance to defend himself. _I see now the decision has been made, any case we put to the NRL will be ignored._

Have a good look at those record profits and other figures listed above Tigers fans, how dare he be successful hey.

It's effectively the same direction which brought Flanagan undone during his hiatus.

 

[Plato]

All Greenberg really had to do was invite Pascoe to show cause why sanctions should not be applied, and then proceed in an adult business-like fashion. His childish display of aggression has now given us ammunition to sue the NRL for damage to our brand, and to Pascoe's reputation. I don't know what dollar value you could put on that, but it certainly would be enough to give Greenberg second thoughts if our legal team decided to go that way.

 

[Plato]

I'm sending an email to Greenberg - is "shit head" hyphenated?

 

[whippet75]

Can anyone tell me if Marina Go ie the chair of the board has to be registered by the NRL. Simple solution for our club. Go becomes the CEO and Pascoe the new chair. Swap is in name only, their day to day tasks remain the same.
Vladimir Puritan did it a few years back. Went from president to party leader or something but nothing changed. We should do the same. Change Pascoe to some other title within the club, install a puppet CEO, and let him continue to run the joint.

 

[Dr_Ice]

Pascoe is not allowed contact with anyone at the club.

 

[vlad]

Pascoe is not allowed contact with anyone at the club.

Hope he uses whatsApp instead of emails

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Use Snapchat

 

[JD Tiger]

You certainly seem to be going hard against us. You keep saying we cheated but there's zero evidence we've cheated at this point. The NRL says we've breached the cap but it's a stretch to say we've cheated unless you are in possession of facts the rest of us are not. Cheating is a deliberate and purposeful act - where's your evidence we committed a deliberate and purposeful act? I think it's 100% correct that we've breached cap rules but the question is how did the breach arise. Was it a reporting oversight, a failure to understand the rules or deliberate flouting of the rules (e.g Storm, Parramatta, Canterbury)? The point most on the forum are trying to make is that the punishment has to fit the crime.

Where's my facts? That's such a stupid question .
The NRL has the facts and handed down a punishment. Where's your facts to disprove their findings?
If this was any other team you'd be calling them cheats.

No pal, you define stupidity. **The NRL has not called it cheating, it's a breach of the cap.** You called them cheats. There';s a difference but clearly you're too dense to see it.

Ok Pascoe isn't entirely innocent -as he did fail under NRL guidelines- but I agree that we aren't exactly cap rorters either. Ours is just a rather complex situation.
It's super annoying and frustrating to see us getting lumped in the same category as the likes of Storms, Bulldogs and the Eels. Our case is not even remotely the same.

The one thing I don't get about all this, is that the breach is supposed to be for not declaring an ambassador role offered to Farah. So that should be it.
But Greenberg furthermore includes the fact that we sought cap relief as supportive evidence.
Why not just come out and say there's been some questionable and possibly unethical or illegal dealings, instead of saying outright that it’s the post footy job that’s the problem. And how does this even hold water?

I still say Greenburg has done the dirty on us. Greenburg is saying we were unethical for applying for something which would give us some extra space in the cap?? Of course we should apply, and if we aren't successful, then we are denied. There's nothing wrong in applying. I bet you every club applies for something like that, and they put their best case forward, even if they think it doesn't meet the criteria, just in case it is successful. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and nothing to lose.

Roosters at the time Robbie was leaving us and before he went to Souths, offered Robbie a contract at something like $100k or even less. Scum-like behaviour, but of course I don't blame them for trying, but I'd be screaming blue murder had NRL approved it,