News Limited Says it Could Not have discovered Melbourne Storm...

[Bourbon Rat]

But as News Limited's forensic auditors from Deloitte pour over the Melbourne Storm's accounts, there are growing suggestions that salary cap rorting is widespread in the NRL.

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald quotes one unnamed chief executive who claims a number of NRL clubs are paying over the $4.1 million cap.

"There's probably six or seven clubs that come to mind and certainly one in particular who has been doing it for years,'' one club chief executive told the paper.

''But that club will never get caught because they hand out money in brown paper bags and don't leave a paper trail like the Storm.''

With claims of a "brown paper bag" culture seemingly rife in the NRL, it is little wonder that calls for some sort of inquiry in the running of the game are continuing.

Reads like a cheap novel doesn't it 

[LESStar58]

If the administration could hide it from the deadbeats at the NRL (I refuse to point the finger at Gallop for our present situation but I think he's a farking generally useless in his role. Andrew Demitriou is an egotistical prat and I cannot stand him but at least he's good at his job) then they could easily have hid it from News Limited.

The thing that really has me curious is this; who at News Limited was responsible for overseeing the books at the Melbourne Storm? The team is an investment by News Limited. Correct? Yes, absolutely. Was there somebody, or a group of people who were responsible for at least checking the books every now and again?

The first thing I heard when details started emerging was something involving a  mixture of corporate hospitality, game day entertainment and marquee hire being used as a way to conceal some of the player payments. Surely someone at News must have looked at the expenditure on these sorts of things and double take. Somebody had to be responsible for reporting to the higher ups at the parent company from either the Storm administration or said News limited person or persons overseeing the affairs of the Storm.

And herein lies the problem with having News own the team and a half share in the NRL. I think that News has more to lose from their involvement with the governing body than the Storm, or even the Broncos who they own/part own. But let's stick with Storm seeing as we are the ones in the shit. If people at News KNEW about the practices at Melbourne and turned a blind eye to it, encouraged it or failed to inform the NRL through their reporting or corporate structure then it's bound to make the NRL look as bad, if not as worse, than Melbourne because News limited are affiliated with the NRL.

A small part of me thinks that SOMEONE at News Limited knew what went on. Let's not kid ourselves; the issue is in it's infancy, less than a week old. It's either going to get better or it's going to get worse when the details start coming out but I have an inkling that a few heads will be rolling at News Limited over this whole affair.

[PurpleBlooded]

All this could be avoided, if the NRL allowed third party payments. Other leagues throughout Australia do this, but not the NRL.

Ridiculous.

[CooperCronk]

The NRL must be one of the most unorganised and incompetant organisations on planet earth.