Parramatta Eels scandal: NRL penalties including removal of 12 points occurs today

THEY had brief respite with a tough win last night, but Parramatta’s season will effectively be ended today, with the ­scandal-ridden club to be docked 12 competition points by the NRL — instantly condemning the Eels to languish among the competition’s cellar-dwellers.

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PARRAMATTA’S season will effectively be ended today, with the ­scandal-ridden club to at last be docked 12 competition points by the NRL — instantly condemning the Eels to languish among the competition’s cellar-dwellers.

The NRL’s final penalties against the club — also including director deregistrations and a $1 million fine — will come 122 days after the Telegraph first published documents showing an industrial-scale conspiracy by the Eels board and other executives to cheat the salary cap.

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Three of the Gang of Five are set to have deregistration confirmed today.

But the saga remains far from over. The Saturday Telegraph understands that more explosive evidence has been uncovered in the past few weeks about alleged plans by Parramatta to cheat from as recently as February this year.

Transcripts of the Eels board’s February monthly meeting allegedly shows club officials actively talked about finding ways around the NRL salary cap.

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The fresh revelations are believed to involve at least some members of the Eels’ suspended “Gang of Five”, but they also implicate other senior officials who have so far been untouched.

It is understood the NRL has in recent weeks closely considered whether to issue more breach ­notices to board members not yet sanctioned.

However, it is believed NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg will not impose sanctions on the other board members. The governing body will instead focus on helping the Eels to implement much-needed governance reforms.

John Boulous.

Daniel Anderson.

Meanwhile, investigations by clubs regulator NSW Liquor and Gaming, NSW Police and the Tax Office are continuing.

The suspended Gang of Five — chairman Steve Sharp, CEO John Boulous, deputy chairman Tom Issa, director Peter Serrao and football boss Daniel Anderson — are set to have their final deregistrations as Eels officials confirmed today.

The $1 million fine is set to stand today, while the Eels’ Auckland Nines title — worth $370,000 in prize money — will also be stripped.

Meanwhile, NSW Liquor and Gaming has confirmed it is closely scrutinising “relevant corporate governance issues” at the Eels’ parent, the Parramatta Leagues Club.

Its probe is primarily looking at whether Parramatta board members are “fit and proper persons” under the Registered Clubs Act, given the extensive findings in the NRL’s investigation.

One option open to Liquor and Gaming is the removal of part or all of the Leagues Club board and the appointment of an administrator to oversee the club until its next annual general meeting next year.

This could have significant implications for the seven-member Eels board, as it is currently required to mirror the Leagues Club board.

There has been a fractious relationship between the Eels and the NRL since the initial breach notice, with the officials using $400,000-plus in Leagues Club members’ funds in a NSW Supreme Court challenge to the code’s right to suspend its officials.

Notices of at least three extraordinary general meeting proposals have been lodged in an attempt to clean out the club.