Melbourne Storm Premiers No More
In a shocking day of news for Rugby League here in Australia, the Melbourne Storm have been caught exceeding the salary cap. Not for one year, not for two, but for five years.
As a result the team has had three minor premierships and two premierships taken from them. The Melbourne Storm were said to have exceeded the salary cap by 1.7 million dollars over the five years. $700 000 was the amount they went over the cap in 2010.
If the above punishment was not enough the Storm have also been awarded the wooden spoon for 2010. That happened as they were stripped of all points this season and also are not able to win points in 2010.
It was the Salary Cap auditor who hit the jackpot when he found a file in a room near where the legal payments were recorded. This uncovered the fact that the Storm were running two books to pay and retain some of the biggest names in the game.
The Storm has been fined $500 000 and must pay back $1.1 million in prizemoney. The returned money will be divided evenly amongst the other clubs.
The teams defeated by Melbourne in the 2007 and 2009 grand finals are not being awarded retrospective premierships.
Brian Waldron has been named as the architect of this massive cheating scheme. He left the club at the start of the year to head up the new Melbourne Super 15 rugby union team.
You have to wonder how the players feel. They are clearly part of the scheme or did they all just not notice the extra items?
Back in 2002, the Bulldogs were deducted 37 points and fined $500 000 for being more than $1 million over for two seasons. At the time that seemed quite amazing but that is nothing compared to what has been dished out to the Storm. The loss of two premierships is pretty harsh but justified.
With so many games to play this season it now remains to be seen how this effects the club. Also who will still be around for 2011.
This is really not what the NRL wants as they battle for marketshare in the AFL headquarters.
Is this one of the biggest scandals in Australian sport?
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