Wests Tigers left fuming over $640,000 Robbie Farah scandal

Wests Tigers have vowed to vigorously defend their integrity and that of CEO Justin Pascoe after the NRL fined them $750,000 for a salary cap breach.

Pascoe has been provisionally de-registered for the breach, which involves an agreement to pay club great Robbie Farah in an ambassadorial role when he retires.

The offer was made in late 2015, a year before Farah left the Tigers to join South Sydney.

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The NRL believes the payment should have been disclosed and included in the salary cap.

“The breach notice proposes a fine of $750,000 and that an amount of $639,000 – the value of the ambassador’s agreement – be added to the club’s salary cap in 2019,” NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said.

Pascoe and the Tigers have until January to respond to the breach notice.

The Tigers issued a statement saying they were “shocked with the decision and extremely disappointed in the process”.

“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,” a club statement said.

“The club will be vigorously defending this.”

Farah left the club for South Sydney at the end of 2016 after a long feud with then coach Jason Taylor who wanted to move him on but subsequently returned as a player in June this year.

The Tigers said new CEO Pascoe made the ambassadorial offer because he felt the club had disrespected long-serving ex-captain Farah.

“(The ambassadorial role) is an arrangement that Wests Tigers had with Robbie that is unrelated to his career as a player,” the club said.

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

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

However, Greenberg said the Tigers shold have declared the agreement to the NRL but stressed there is no suggestion that Farah has done anything wrong.

“The games rules are very, very clear on these arrangements. Any commitment to make such a payment should have been disclosed and it should have been included in the salary cap,” he said.

“The club failed to do this. The club 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.”