Eels board squandered $300K just to pay Kieran Foran $30k extra

THE Parramatta board squandered $300,000 of members’ funds to secure a single proposed $30,000 illegal third party agreement for star recruit Kieran Foran, new evidence shows.

• Eels directors split as board faces axe from NSW Government
• Will the Parramatta Eels ever manage to right the ship?

THE Parramatta board squandered $300,000 of members’ funds to secure a single proposed $30,000 illegal third party agreement for star recruit Kieran Foran, new evidence shows.

Secret tapes of directors’ meetings in February, transcripts of which have been obtained by The Daily Telegraph, show key board members discussing at length the use of an Eels body known as The Premiership Club to avoid disclosing under-the-table TPAs to players in a plan to skirt the NRL’s salary cap.

The evidence presents a new line of inquiry in the NSW Police’s newly formed Strike Force Rhodium, which is likely to be interested in the poor returns for Parramatta Leagues Club members from $300,000 in subsidies the club provided to The Premiership Club.

The Eels have reeled from one scandal to another this year. Picture: Gregg Porteous

This club was set up by the Eels as a high-end business network with about 15 members, most prominent property developers, schmoozing them with junkets to interstate State of Origin matches and unique opportunities to meet high-profile Parramatta players.

But transcripts of the secret tapes make it clear Parramatta hoped the schmoozing would help it to skirt the NRL’s salary cap by receiving TPAs from these companies. Eels directors pointed out The Premiership Club’s purpose was to “get people involved to tap on the shoulder for third parties”.

The tapes may be the final straw for Deputy Premier Troy Grant and the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) to move to sack the entire Leagues Club board. The ILGA will meet at 2pm today to consider removing the board and appointing an administrator.

Today’s meeting comes after Parramatta board last night formally lodged its appeal against the NRL’s $1 million fine and points penalty against the club.

Deputy Premier Troy Grant could step in to sack the Eels board.

In a February meeting, Eels director Andrew Cordwell mentions one of the companies involved in The Premiership Club had offered “a $30,000 TPA for Kieran Foran”. It is not known if this TPA went ahead. There is no suggestion Foran has done anything wrong.

Director Geoff Gerard grills chairman Steve Sharp about the financial wisdom of accepting a solitary TPA, given The Premiership Club’s $300,000 in losses.

“Is it a good investment?” he asks. “To get one $30,000 in TPAs, it’s costing us $300,000. You’re talking about savings — there’s some. “

Mr Sharp replies: “I understand costs efficiency with one 30 (thousand TPA) against 300,000 — but if you don’t spend the 300,000, you might not get that one 30.”

But Mr Gerard challenges Mr Sharp and The Premiership Club’s future: “We need to make the decision going forward on this thing, and if it’s going to continually lose 250,000 bucks … we either make a decision that it’s going to really work for us or we’ve got to cut it.”

Parramatta Eels chairman Steve Sharp has already jumped ship.

Mr Sharp claims the club needed to “sail against the wind” to compete with other clubs: “If it costs us 300 (thousand) and we get 200 (thousand) out of it — and we couldn’t get 200 somewhere else — then we’re probably, you know, to compete with the Bulldogs and the Roosters who are quite happy to sail against the wind and take that fine line that no-one’s going to come in and challenge them …”

Another Eels director at the meeting makes a similar claim that clubs like the Bulldogs and Roosters are receiving TPAs, that “aren’t being found out”.

Despite these slurs at the meeting, there is no suggestion the Bulldogs or the Roosters have done anything wrong.

Eels deputy chairman Tom Issa appears to boast about TPAs the NRL has not discovered.

“We’ve had four related entities that haven’t been found out.Right? There’s four related entities that haven’t - and they’ve accumulated to over $100,000. Now I know that for a fact.”