NRL clubs threaten rebel breakaway competition over funding feud
Peter V’landys and Andrew Abdo have cancelled their World Cup trip as the NRL and RLPA funding stalemate takes an explosive turn that could tear the game apart.
Phil Rothfield
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League bosses Peter V’landys and Andrew Abdo have cancelled their trip to England for the World Cup final as the
club funding row reaches breaking point amid extraordinary threats of disgruntled clubs setting up a breakaway competition.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal a handful of clubs have privately raised the drastic option of forming a rebel league, such is their anger and bitter frustration over the
financial stalemate that has put the game at a standstill.
While it sounds extreme and unfeasible, this action has been confirmed as a last resort play by Brian Fletcher, the boss of NRL champions the Penrith Panthers.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the licences of all 16 clubs established clubs expire at the end of next season, a situation that makes their threat more realistic, although highly unlikely.
However the
urgency to find a solution has resulted in V’landys and Abdo cancelling a planned trip to England for the World Cup.
They made the decision before the latest club threats in the spirit of the negotiation process.
V’landys has apologised to the World Cup organisers.
Andrew Abdo and Peter V’landys abandon their World Cup plans as the CBA crisis worsens.
Fletcher told The Daily Telegraph: “We’re not going to be dictated to.”
Another senior club official, who declined to be named, said: “If the
NRL want to bully players and clubs, we will find a different group of people to govern the game.”
There is no question now that the relationship between a number of clubs, the RLPA and the head body is absolutely at rock bottom.
However V’landys is backing his chief executive Andrew Abdo to the hilt.
“I respect the fact that everyone is trying to maximise the returns to themselves,” he said.
“However what I find most disappointing is that they are attacking Andrew Abdo with falsehoods.
“No one has worked harder for the game to get it to the healthy position it’s now in.
“You’ve got to play the ball, not the player.
Penrith Panthers CEO Brian Fletcher says clubs believe the NRL is robbing them. Picture: AAP/Joel Carrett
“I’m confident we will get a resolution which not everyone is going to like but at the end of the day that’s why you have an independent commission.”
The latest breakaway-competition threat is all the more remarkable in that Panthers boss Fletcher is a close 20-year friend of V’landys.
It was Fletcher who first approached V’landys and convinced the Racing NSW chief to join the independent commission back in 2018.
Yet his Penrith club is one of many that are fed up.
The game is in an unprecedented mess at the beginning of the rugby league financial year with:
• No salary cap for 2023
• No club funding agreement
• No collective bargaining deal
• No playing schedule for next year
• And no relationship with the NSWRL, with whom they are involved in legal action.
After months of painfully slow negotiations, it is fair to say both sides are at fault for the delays.
Not all clubs are as angry as others. In fact the NRL believes they have the majority of clubs onside with some minor tweaks on funding of the women’s game.
That many would be happy to take what’s on offer now because, since V’landys’ arrival, they have gone from financial basket cases to profitable organisations.
However the likes of Fletcher and Souths boss Blake Solly insists most clubs are behind them.
Fletcher complains about the lack of detail around NRL’s finances.
“Peter has got to realise we need some answers and we need some transparency,” Fletcher said.
“We’ve asked for a balance sheet from Magic Round.
Andrew Abdo has come under fire from disgruntled clubs over the NRL’s handling of finances. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty
“We put on the show but we never see anything. It’s actually deplorable. Show us the figures.
“It’s hard to support them when you think they are robbing you.
“The clubs are the shareholders.
“How much did they make out of the grand final? And why rob the people that put the game on.”
Pressed again on a breakaway competition, Fletcher said: “The clubs aren’t going to be 100 percent dictated to. Abdo is using the word commission.
“I don’t think all of them even know what’s going on here.
“All the clubs want is $5 million on top of the cap which we need.
“It’s peanuts when they’re skiting about making $50 million over two pages in the paper.”
Fletcher has offered to sit down with V’landys.
“Maybe they are trying to starve us out and the financially weaker clubs will give in,” he said.
“The stronger clubs won’t be, I can guarantee that.
“Clint (Newton) is no pushover either. He’s got a strong board behind him and the players aren’t going to cop it.
“Maybe I’ll go and talk to Peter to see where we can go with a bit of common sense.”
