Farah was owed money before he went to Souths. Not necessarily just from his contract. Part of his agreement to go to Souths was that he would get the more money owed and the ambassador agreement was a mechanism to achieve this. At the same time WT are getting exemptions because Farah is “bad for team harmony”. When Farah returns there is this agreement to pay him x amount of money as an ambassador. Pascoe registers the contract but not the other agreement.
As for Greenberg and the NRL, it’s important remember the integrity unit looked at this for a long time in considerable detail. So while the punishment might be a Todd special, the findings aren’t a Greenberg/Gould/whoever conspiracy.
Pascoe, and let me reiterate that I hold him in high esteem and think he’s done a super job, either through honest error, oversight, or deliberate obfuscation held the agreement from the NRL. That’s where it is right now.
Farah being owed money can be interpreted two ways. It could be that he was owed money to which he was contractually entitled and presumably had already been included in our cap in previous years and was not paid. If this was the case, then on your version of events we simply came to an agreement as to when this would be paid and this agreement is irrelevant to the cap given the amount was already included.
The other alternative is that Farah claimed he had been promised additional money in some future contract to get him to sign for a lesser deal for an earlier contract and this was to compensate him in relation to such a claim. Now I recall there were murmurs of such a problem with Benji but I do not recall this with Farah as the last deal he signed was always going to be his last deal with the club. However, I accept if this Is what occurred, then it is a problem.
The above being said, both of the above are wholly inconsistent with what the club has claimed. The club has stated there was no connection between the ambassador deal and any playing contract. They have stated that Pascoe offered the deal to effectively re-build bridges between Farah and the club.
Another problem is the above versions are inconsistent with the statements made by the NRL. Weekes stated that the NRL couldn’t understand why the deal was offered. It seems to me that even the NRL didn’t see a connection to any playing contract.
You can’t guarantee TPA money. So if you’re say contracted for another year and are owed 500k for either contract or non-playing stuff and your employer is desperate for you to go it strengthens your position.
Farah was owed money and **JT was so desperate to shed him that some decisions were made that have comeback to bite us.**
Ah good ol JT the gift that keeps on giving. Probably having a big chuckle at our present dilemma from his comfy position in his feathered nest out Bondi way, premiership ring on his finger.