Inner West mayor calls for state government intervention in Wests Tigers’ battle

8 hours ago 3

Inner West Council mayor Darcy Byrne has called on the NSW government to resolve the Wests Tigers’ boardroom imbroglio with an intervention similar to that at Parramatta in 2016.

The Tigers remain in the spotlight and under fire after the decision last week to sack four independent boardroom directors, including chairman and former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell.

Byrne has been an outspoken critic of the Holman Barnes Group (HBG), which owns 90 per cent of the Tigers franchise and orchestrated last week’s boardroom upheaval.

As well as a series of public comments, the mayor has convened a public rally for Saturday. He is urging Tigers fans to march from Pratten Park to Wests Ashfield and demand that the HBG board members resign.

On Sunday, he ramped up his campaign by calling on NSW Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris to step in and take control of the HBG, citing concerns about club members’ funds being spent on legal action.

As well as the current boardroom battle, HBG also sacked three directors – Rick Wayde, Tony Andreacchio and David Gilbert – last year. Wayde subsequently took legal action and said he accepted an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount.

Wests Tigers fans are entitled to be concerned about their club’s boardroom circus, says Darcy Byrne.

Byrne said members were entitled to “transparency” about the exact figure.

“I’ll be writing to [ARL Commission chairman] Peter V’landys and to David Harris separately, calling for each of them to intervene in the Wests Tigers’ situation,” Byrne said.

“In the case of minister Harris, I’m going to call for his agency to put an administrator in place to run the Holman Barnes Group.

“We want some transparency on how much has been spent of members’ money on legal fees in the past year … I think that is the smoking gun for intervention by Minister Harris.

In 2016, the Parramatta Leagues Club board was sacked and an administrator appointed when the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority intervened after a salary-cap scandal resulted in the Eels being stripped of 12 competition points and fined $1 million.

As well as ousting the directors, five Parramatta officials were deregistered. The Eels won 13 games that season, which would have been enough to qualify for the finals if penalties had not been imposed. Instead, they finished 14th.

The state’s liquor and gaming watchdog, Liquor and Gaming NSW, said last week it was “monitoring” the situation but was “not currently investigating any matters” relating to HBG.

V’landys promised that the NRL would “safeguard” the club’s long-suffering fans.

“We will look into it,” he said. “I’m not saying they have done anything wrong, but naturally we are concerned.”

Byrne said it would be a further blow for the Tigers if chief executive Shane Richardson and the club part company on Monday.

Richardson has two seasons remaining on his contract, but the deal is reported to include an exit clause that would entitle him to a lucrative payout if there were changes in the boardroom.

Asked about Richardson’s future last week, HBG chief executive Daniel Paton said: “Shane needs to make a decision now. We’ll respect his decision. That’s up to Shane, and he’ll come back to us.”

Byrne said it appeared “untenable” for Richardson to continue working under a new-look board.

“He’s the guy who’s been in charge of the clean-up operation, and most people seem to think he’s been doing a good job,” Byrne said.

“If you sack the independent directors and chairman of his board – and remember he insisted on having independent directors as a condition of taking the job – you’re sending a message that his position is untenable … if ‘Richo’ goes, I am genuinely worried about the Tigers going out the back door.

“If he goes, how do you recover from that? Who would actually agree to be CEO of the Wests Tigers?

“How can they re-sign Jarome Luai? This is exactly the reason he asked for clauses in his contract.

“I am actually concerned that this will be the end, just when the club was starting to turn things around.

“I’m just worried that in a couple of years the Tigers will be running last, the administration still won’t be fixed and it won’t be that hard a decision to move the franchise.”

Paton and HBG chairman Dennis Burgess were contacted for comment.

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