Sharks coach and Tigers CEO sensationally kicked out of NRL

Shane Flanagan and Justin Pascoe have both been de-registered by the NRL over their club’s latest scandals.

Sharks coach Flanagan has been de-registered for dealing with the club while suspended in 2014.

The Sharks have also been fined $800,000 – half of which was suspended at the time over their supplements saga.

Flanagan and the club have until the end of January to respond to a breach notice, which is when the NRL will make its final determination.

However, the Sharks will have to overturn evidence found by the NRL integrity unit that more than 50 emails were sent by Flanagan concerning retention and recruitment.

His first correspondence was sent just weeks after his suspension and continued all the way to September 2014.

The club is believed to have initiated most of the discussions, resulting in the extra $400,000 fine.

However, no other clubs officials have been punished because then-CEO Steve Noyce and then-football manager Darren Mooney are no longer NRL officials.

At the time, NRL integrity unit investigators met with both club representatives and Flanagan’s manager to ensure the coach had no contact with the club.

Towards the end of his suspension in September, Flanagan sent another email to the NRL unequivocally stating he had no involvement in retention during his ban.

“In 2014 the NRL fined the Sharks $1 million with $400,000 of that suspended in relation to the administration of supplements at the club,” Todd Greenberg said on Wednesday.

“The coach Shane Flanagan had his registration cancelled for 12 months, it was then reduced to nine months if he met certain conditions.

“Part of those conditions was a requirement that the club not allow Mr Flanagan to be concerned directly or indirectly with the club while he was suspended.

“That message was reinforced a number of times to the club and to Mr Flanagan during his suspension — the conditions that applied to Shane Flanagan’s 2014 suspension were crystal clear. Shane and the club appeared to ignore those conditions.

“We’ve identified a substantial volume of material that supports the preliminary finding that Mr Flanagan was closely and constantly involved with the club while suspended.”

Tigers’ salary cap rort

Meanwhile, Wests Tigers have been fined $750,000 and had their CEO Pascoe de-registered for salary-cap breaches involving club great Robbie Farah.

The NRL on Wednesday revealed Pascoe and the Tigers agreed in 2016 to pay Farah $639,000 a year to return to the club in an ambassador role once he finished his playing career at South Sydney, but did not include the payment in the club’s salary cap.

“The club entered an agreement to pay Robbie Farah to act as an ambassador at the club when he retires from playing,” Greenberg said.

“This agreement was signed in 2016 at the same time that Robbie left the club to join the Rabbitohs.

“The game’s rules are very, very clear on these arrangements. Any commitment to make such a payment should’ve been disclosed and it should’ve been included in the salary cap.

“The club failed to do this… it then compounded its conduct by submitting a misleading application to the NRL in relation to the salary cap treatment of money paid to Robbie when he left the club.”

Like Flanagan, Pascoe and the Tigers have until January to respond to the breach notices.

The club has issued a strongly-worded statement slamming the sanctions.

“The club is shocked with the decision and extremely disappointed in the process,” the statement says.

“It is an arrangement that Wests Tigers had with Robbie that is unrelated to his career as a player.

“The club does not know if he is going to take it up and Robbie has not indicated his intention in return.

“The reason the ambassadorship was offered in November 2015 is that then new CEO Justin Pascoe felt that the club had disrespected Robbie and this was a way to show him the respect that Justin felt he deserved as a Life Member and club legend due to the overwhelming support Robbie had at the time from Members and fans.

“Most importantly Wests Tigers derive absolutely no advantage from this arrangement. It is not tied in any way to Robbie’s playing contract.

“Wests Tigers are particularly concerned about the wrongful attack on the integrity of the club’s CEO. For the last three years Justin has shown nothing but respect for the NRL and the salary cap.

“The club will be vigorously defending this.”