Saturday 9 July 2016 08:43, UK
Parramatta Eels have been docked 12 competition points and fined one million Australian dollars (£580,000) for breaches of the NRL salary cap dating back to 2013.
The punishment, which takes immediate effect, has been imposed by the NRL, which has also cancelled the registration of five club officials, including chairman Steve Sharp and football manager Daniel Anderson, the former St Helens head coach.
It means the Eels will drop from fifth in the table to 12th and effectively out of contention for the top-eight play-offs. They have also been stripped of the Auckland Nines title they won earlier this year.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said that he had carefully considered the responses from the Parramatta club and five officials to the breach notices issued on May 3.
"While each made points worthy of consideration, there was insufficient information in those responses to warrant any change to the penalties originally proposed in the breach notices," he said.
"The overall impression that I got from the responses is that no one at the club has taken responsibility for the deliberate, systemic and blatant breaches of the salary cap.
"We have to take a stand to demonstrate that the NRL will not tolerate contraventions of the salary cap which plays such a crucial role in giving us one of the closest competitions in Australian sport."
