Australian Rugby / RA
- Thread starter Dave Beat
- Start date
Derpus
Nathan Sharpe (72)
Man you took that to a weird place.
half
Dick Tooth (41)
The current RA board have been in crisis management for maybe 18 months now.
Their previous ineptitude in running the competition, lead this the crisis.
It beggars belief, they are still there, still with no plan “B”, still talking up their importance.
The difficulty is as many see it, to change without grantees of similar income levels will destroy the game as we know it.
The difficulty I see, is the longer we put off major reform, the harder it will be, and IF or when Super Rugby fails, the lack of planning will see a near collapse of the professional game in Australia.
My view is simply, we need to shift to a new operating model. As always I say it will take 3 to 4 years of planning, negotiations, and implementation.
Doing SFA or shrinking to expansion will in time lead to IMO a collapse of the professional game in Australia at some time in the future.
Their previous ineptitude in running the competition, lead this the crisis.
It beggars belief, they are still there, still with no plan “B”, still talking up their importance.
The difficulty is as many see it, to change without grantees of similar income levels will destroy the game as we know it.
The difficulty I see, is the longer we put off major reform, the harder it will be, and IF or when Super Rugby fails, the lack of planning will see a near collapse of the professional game in Australia.
My view is simply, we need to shift to a new operating model. As always I say it will take 3 to 4 years of planning, negotiations, and implementation.
Doing SFA or shrinking to expansion will in time lead to IMO a collapse of the professional game in Australia at some time in the future.
Slim 293
Stirling Mortlock (74)
Derpus
Nathan Sharpe (72)
Haven't we discussed this ad nauseam in the dire 'Where to' thread? We were having a nice discussion about coffee and incest.
Brumby Runner
Jason Little (69)
You'd have to be crazy to believe Yassarian's preachings and that would be an accepted reason for bypassing Hell, but having a wish to avoid Hell would indicate that you are not crazy, so Catch 22.
Quick Hands
David Wilson (68)
And what's worse, you're not even safe there from the clutches of the big 4 banks. We heard today that the Commonwealth has been charging dead people fees for financial advice.
Nice work if you can get it.
jimmydubs
Dave Cowper (27)
What about plan C. Where they kept the force, turned down twiggys cash (or didn’t need to because he wouldn’t have put it up if the force weren’t in the block) and just let the side that was bankrupt be bankrupt and have it stop bankrupting the ARU.
I know there are details but you don’t have to be a born again twiggy believer or think that twiggy is the best thing since a double soy Skim macchiawhatverthefuxkcato to think they took the worst possible option and did it in about the least transparent possible way.
Note: I included the coffee (shoot me I don’t drink it) and born again references to ensure this post stayed vaguely on topic..
Edit: and as a result Clyne should be pilloried till he goes and then remembered with disgust and disdain
I know there are details but you don’t have to be a born again twiggy believer or think that twiggy is the best thing since a double soy Skim macchiawhatverthefuxkcato to think they took the worst possible option and did it in about the least transparent possible way.
Note: I included the coffee (shoot me I don’t drink it) and born again references to ensure this post stayed vaguely on topic..
Edit: and as a result Clyne should be pilloried till he goes and then remembered with disgust and disdain
There was no Super 16 until a team goes bust and then it can become Super 15 option.
Once they agreed to cut a team they cut the only team they were legally able to cut.
I don't really see how there could have been a flexible option on the number of teams with the broadcasters that provided for a team failing at an unspecified point in the future.
RA had to provide a specific number of teams under all broadcast arrangements so they needed to bail out failing teams to meet that obligation.
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Killer
Cyril Towers (30)
no, RA had cox on ice, he wanted out before having to start using his own money.
All they had to do was make a deal with him to take the licence because the vru didn't have the money.
Instead they orchestrated a deal for vru to take the licence via the put. They provided the Deed of Amendment that was needed for the put option and they provided half the money.
Then claimed they knew nothing about the transfer when they were intimately involved, unbelievable.
RA could have cut either team.
Following two articles thanks to Jackster from TWF
https://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/ru...-ng-b88678742z
Rugby Australia emails show Western Force didn’t stand a chance
Nick Taylor, Exclusive | PerthNow
December 3, 2017 3:02PM
Topics
Western Force
FURTHER evidence has emerged that Rugby Australia helped orchestrate the sale of the Melbourne Rebels to the Victorian Rugby Union, effectively signing the Western Force’s Super Rugby death warrant.
Details have surfaced in an email, obtained by The Sunday Times, that was sent from RA’s former legal counsel Richard Hawkins to VRU chairman Tim North.
It was sent on July 11, less than a month before RA closed the Force.
It was also addressed to RA chief executive Bill Pulver and head of professional rugby Anthony French.
Hawkins said a Deed of Amendment was needed for the put option for transferring ownership of the Rebels to the VRU because it “doesn’t quite work for what we are all contemplating here”.
The initial clause stated the date of completion must be no less than six months and no more than seven months after the date of the Exercise Notice.
But a letter to the VRU from Rebels owner, New Zealand businessman Andrew Cox’s Imperium Sports Management says: “We irrevocably exercise the put option granted to us under the Put Option Deed and require you to purchase the option shares from us on the terms and conditions set out in the Put Option Deed. In accordance with clause 2.3(a) of the Deed we specify (insert date) as the Completion Date.”
Cox used the put option and sold 11,625,000 Rebels shares to the VRU on August 4 for $1 – less than a month after the email was sent.
It says: “In terms of other documents, our view is that we will need a Deed of Amendment for the put option as the mechanism it currently contains for transferring ownership of the Rebels to the VRU doesn’t work for what we are all contemplating here — see clause 2.3(a) of the put option for example.
“We can instruct (legal firm) Clayon Utz to draft the Deed of Amendment if you are happy with this?
“Otherwise, there is the Deed of Release between the Rebels, AC (Cox), PS (Peter Sidwell a member of Cox’s consortium) and the other unitholders which it looks like you have in hand.”
Pulver, Hawkins and North did not reply when asked for a comment.
The latest revelation comes after The Sunday Times revealed last week that RA was brokering a deal to save the Rebels two months before the decision to axe the Force was announced.
Another email shows Pulver was discussing the deal to transfer the Rebels licence from Cox to the VRU in June this year. Pulver denied any involvement in the subsequent transfer of the Rebels licence.
RA aid saved Rebels
The Sunday Times15 Apr 2018NICK TAYLOR
RUGBY Australia money helped clear the debt that saved the Melbourne Rebels and effectively signed the Western Force’s Super Rugby death warrant.
The revelation comes after this week’s RA announcement of a $3.8m loss for 2017, citing the messy axing of the Force as one of the factors.
Confidential documents obtained by The Sunday Times show the Australian Rugby Union — now RA — agreed to pay former Rebels owner, New Zealand businessman Andrew Cox, $300,000 and then-director Peter Sidwell $200,000.
The money was then paid to the Rebels.
The payments, contained in a Deed of Settlement Release, relate to “disputes” with the Rebels over RA’s threats to axe the Rebels and directs the money to the Melbournebased club.
The documents also state two other directors Lyndsey Cattermole and Bob Dalziel “gift” the Rebels $250,000 each. The combined amounts effectively cleared the Rebels debt of $789,811 that allowed Cox to sell the club to the Victorian Rugby Union for $1 under a Put Option agreement, effectively spelling the end of the Force as the Rebels could then not be closed.
The document says, among others, Cox and Sidwell “had suffered loss and damage as a result of statements alleged to have been made by or on behalf of the ARU on and from 10 April 2017”.
On April 10, RA chairman Cameron Clyne said a decision on which team would be cut would be made after consultation with the Force and rebels.
Four days later the Rebels issued a statement saying they “unequivocally” rejected that RA could “chop or cut” the club and had notified it of its intention to seek compensation.
The deed of settlement says Cox and Sidwell: “. . . respectively direct that the respective payments to them be paid to MRRUPL for the purposes of MRRUPL satisfying the Debt Free Requirement and MRRUPL agrees that these payments will be used solely for this purpose”.
It also says Cattermole and Dalziel promise to the ARU “. . . they have each gifted $250,000 to MRRUPL for the purpose of MRRUPL satisfying the Debt Free requirement and MRRUPL agrees that these gifted amounts will be solely for this purpose”.
Cox used the put option and sold 11,625,000 Rebels shares to the VRU on August 4 for $1.
RA and the Rebels did not respond to questions.
jimmydubs
Dave Cowper (27)
I used to have a sign when I worked in an office, it said ‘hit head here’
Would you agree the way the rebels were ‘saved’ was underhanded and the aru misled us and the senate inquiry as to how it occurred?
Would you agree the rebels are a large part of the reason RA are in financial trouble?
We’re the rebels not and probably still are a financial basket case?
Was the axing not amount money?
My point is the effort put into shafting the force could’ve been put into achieving the correct outcome and I’m sure with the same effort involved it could have been easily achieved.
Gnostic
Mark Ella (57)
Ethics are not an optional extra in life. If Cameron Clyne, Pulver, and the entire ARU board came to me with $1M (or any amount) cash for any business arrangement I would seriously regard it to be stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained. They are without standing, the entire edifice of Australian Rugby is ethically and morally bankrupt and I would not enter any contract with them as how could one consider whether the terms of the contract would be honoured in letter or spirit.
Now as for the entire contents of the above story it is based on records between counsel and as such they will argue privilege and hide their malfeasance, all nicely enabled by the upstanding legal profession, and they wonder why or are entirely blind to the absolute contempt they are held in.
Now as for the entire contents of the above story it is based on records between counsel and as such they will argue privilege and hide their malfeasance, all nicely enabled by the upstanding legal profession, and they wonder why or are entirely blind to the absolute contempt they are held in.
The Honey Badger
Jim Lenehan (48)
charlesalan
Sydney Middleton (9)
that is unless they had not bailed out Mr Cox, since, according to Nick Taylor, "Confidential documents obtained by The Sunday Times show the Australian Rugby Union — now RA — agreed to pay former Rebels owner, New Zealand businessman Andrew Cox, $300,000 and then-director Peter Sidwell $200,000.
The money was then paid to the Rebels....
The documents also state two other directors Lyndsey Cattermole and Bob Dalziel “gift” the Rebels $250,000 each. The combined amounts effectively cleared the Rebels debt of $789,811 that allowed Cox to sell the club to the Victorian Rugby Union for $1 under a Put Option agreement",
so RA helped to bail out the Rebels so that the put option could be exercised and ownership transferred to the VRU. If this had not happened, then the Rebels would have become insolvent and RA could have closed that franchise instead of the WF
Inside Shoulder
Nathan Sharpe (72)
That’s pretty bloody authentic - well done
Inside Shoulder
Nathan Sharpe (72)
Sorry?
How did the legal profession - not one of whom sits on the RA board - get blamed for this crock?
jimmydubs
Dave Cowper (27)
Yep. The put option that the ARU has to approve.
The easiest route would’ve been to make the money they gifted cox and sidwell conditional on the rebels exercising the put option to the ARU for $1. Would’ve saved a lot of money - both now and going forwards.
Gnostic
Mark Ella (57)
enablers. Read the article without counsel's smoke and mirrors the dirty deals could not have been done.
I like to watch
David Codey (61)
Pssst
I've got this really nice harbour bridge for sale.
One owner going cheap.
But you need to act quickly......