John Grant has denied he received a letter from clubs demanding his resignation

UNDER-siege ARLC chairman John Grant received a letter from clubs demanding he resigned long before his media conference on Friday but he denied any knowledge of it.

John Grant is under pressure from NRL clubs to resign from his role as ARLC chairman.

JUST a couple of minutes into John Grant’s press conference at NRL headquarters on Friday, the under siege independent commission chairman was asked the obvious question.

Will you stand down?

“Why would I be standing down?” he replied, “I haven’t received anything to indicate I should.’’

And then the next question: The clubs’ letter hasn’t arrived? “I haven’t seen any letter,’’ he said.

It turns out the letter had actually arrived via email long before Grant’s press conference.

In fact one of the commissioners, Jeremy Sutcliffe, confirmed receipt of the email at 3.26pm — a full 30 minutes before the press conference began.

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Not that Grant would be telling us porkies or getting his wires crossed after such a long and stressful week.

An NRL source said the chairman hadn’t seen it because he had been in a press strategy meeting to discuss what he should say at the media conference. Although it’s strange no one bothered to tell him the explosive letter had arrived.

Just another day of confusion at headquarters …

Not long after his conference started, a club chairman watching on Fox Sports sent me this text message: “He (was emailed) the letter asking for his resignation at least 20 minutes prior to this.”

Earlier the spokesman for the 16 clubs, Melbourne boss Bart Campbell, explained why there was so much solidarity among the clubs.

Letter from John Grant to the chairmen.

Why all but Gold Coast chair Rebecca Frizelle and the QRL agreed Grant had to go.

Campbell didn’t hold back.

“The reality is they (the NRL) behaved extremely poorly the other day,” he said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life in business.

“Imagine if Channel Nine or Fox Sports behaved like this and said they’ve changed their minds about paying the amount they agreed to pay for broadcast rights.

“Channel Nine could say their share price has gone down a bit and they can’t afford it and hold back a couple of hundred million.”

Campbell is a sports entrepreneur who regularly deals with the biggest names in world sport including English Premier League clubs.

He says the NRL have only themselves to blame.

“The only reason our memorandum of understanding lapsed is that they went on a go-slow,” he said.

“It was appalling. You can’t do that in the real world.

“It’s a lack of good faith and poor behaviour. They have caused themselves a tremendous amount of discomfort.”

Originally published as John Grant has denied he received a letter from clubs demanding his resignation