Melbourne Storm

[roboscot 1,176]

The National Rugby League (NRL) operates a salary cap system to try to avoid the richest teams holding all the best players. IMO it works well and most sides are competitive, you don't have the Big 4 mentality of the EPL/La Liga/Serie A etc

This mob have been operating two sets of books and have been overpaying $millions of player salaries.

Punishment?

Stripped of 2 Championships, fined all NRL prizemoney for last 5 years, fined $500,000 for the breach and stripped of ALL championship points for this season. They also cannot collect any points from their remaining games and will finish last.

Fox Sports News

[BeautifulSeas 10]

I don't for one minute believe that they are the only side doing it. I think that this is very common in the game, and most likely in any game that operates a salary cap.

One of my mates had a bet on them finishing bottom of the league, he is now waiting to see if the bet still stands.

[roboscot 1,176]

The news is saying all Storm "wooden spoon" bets are off and stakes will be refunded.

[BeautifulSeas 10]

The news is saying all Storm "wooden spoon" bets are off and stakes will be refunded.

He will be gutted. He got on it pretty heavily (I think he said $800). Huge odds as you can imagine, although the bet went on after he heard about the scandal, but Betfair had not changed the odds.

[Ozblue 4,331]

The news is saying all Storm "wooden spoon" bets are off and stakes will be refunded.

He will be gutted. He got on it pretty heavily (I think he said $800). Huge odds as you can imagine, although the bet went on after he heard about the scandal, but Betfair had not changed the odds.

If Betfair took the bet then it is my understanding they will have to pay him out on that because it is their resposibility to open/close the

market and not the punter even if they accepted the bet after the shit hit the fan.

All bets on the Storm winning the comp. will be refunded in full.

Those who triggered the investigation by betting on the Storm to come last certainly had inside info about this because nobody in their right mind would have bet on it otherwise.....It's like somebody betting on Rangers getting relegated to the 1st Division.

Anyway, the Storm are not alone in this shit because EVERY Rugby League club fiddles the books to sidestep the salary cap and have done so since day dot.It's just that some are smarter than others and have never been caught.

I bet other clubs both in the NRL and AFL will be shitting themselves for a while until this calms down, because you can bet that the witch hunt is about to commence.

[brissyger 8]

The news is saying all Storm "wooden spoon" bets are off and stakes will be refunded.

He will be gutted. He got on it pretty heavily (I think he said $800). Huge odds as you can imagine, although the bet went on after he heard about the scandal, but Betfair had not changed the odds.

If Betfair took the bet then it is my understanding they will have to pay him out on that because it is their resposibility to open/close the

market and not the punter even if they accepted the bet after the shit hit the fan.

All bets on the Storm winning the comp. will be refunded in full.

Those who triggered the investigation by betting on the Storm to come last certainly had inside info about this because nobody in their right mind would have bet on it otherwise.....It's like somebody betting on Rangers getting relegated to the 1st Division.

Anyway, the Storm are not alone in this shit because EVERY Rugby League club fiddles the books to sidestep the salary cap and have done so since day dot.It's just that some are smarter than others and have never been caught.

I bet other clubs both in the NRL and AFL will be shitting themselves for a while until this calms down, because you can bet that the witch hunt is about to commence.

I'm not a big fan of rugby league but even I heard about this. Although I won't pretend I knew something like this was going on, the way the Storm have dominated the comp the last few years made me think something was a little dodgy. This is going to be a huge setback for the NRL which is losing fans every year. It's going to be an especially hard hit on NRL's penetration in Victoria which has been built solely on the back of the Storms recent success. I doubt there will be a mass exodus of fans anytime soon though as much as I want real football taking over the two rugby codes in the war of the codes.

[Skol 401]

By coincidence I was at the Storm's game on Monday against Manly. First game I'd ever seen live of Rugby League and likely the last now!

There is a Union side starting up in Melbourne pretty soon i think (the Rebels). I'd much rather watch that than League or Aussie Rules.

Have only seen one football match (Melbourne Victory) and the standard was terrible.

As others have said, it'll be interesting to see what thorough auditing of other teams' books will reveal...

[Webbez 0]

I don't for one minute believe that they are the only side doing it. I think that this is very common in the game, and most likely in any game that operates a salary cap.

One of my mates had a bet on them finishing bottom of the league, he is now waiting to see if the bet still stands.

Teams have been at it for years and probably still are here in the UK. A player will be on a certain salary which keeps their team below the salary cap and their partner will be given a menial job within the club for example a cleaner or an admin role and be taking home a heavily inflated salary!!

[Ozblue 4,331]

By coincidence I was at the Storm's game on Monday against Manly. First game I'd ever seen live of Rugby League and likely the last now!

There is a Union side starting up in Melbourne pretty soon i think (the Rebels). I'd much rather watch that than League or Aussie Rules.

Have only seen one football match (Melbourne Victory) and the standard was terrible.

As others have said, it'll be interesting to see what thorough auditing of other teams' books will reveal...

I detest Thugby league and all the people who run the fucking game.All the TV stations & newspapers in NSW especially the Daily Telegraph and Channel 9 are just propaganda outlets to that game.Every day it's 10 - 15 pages of RL and 1 page for Football if we are lucky.

It's the same in Victoria with the AFL and that crunt who runs it....He should be told to get fucked trying to blackmail the FFA over our attempt to get the World Cup and saying we won't be able to play at Etihad and the MCG.....Who the fuck does he think he is?

I agree that some of the A League games are pretty sub-standard, but I've seen some real crackers of games over the past few seasons and I'd rather watch a sub-standard game of Football than a game where they throw the ball backwards ( They should have a handle on the ball ) and then take 5 minutes to kick a conversion, or like in the AFL game of Aerial ping-pong where the fucking goals are 40 feet wide and 100 feet high and you actually get a point for missing the fuckin inside goals.

The problem is that they are all terrified that Football will make inroads if we get the World Cup and that will eat into their fan base further down the track.

[brissyger 8]

Football won't be challenging the AFL for a very long time. It has the 4th highest average attendance figures of any sporting league in the world after NFL in America, the Indian Premier League of cricket they just came up with, and the Bundesliga.

That being said it's ridiculous that the other codes are basically holding their stadiums ransom. Whether they like it or not football will grow quickly in Australia now we will regularly feature in the World Cup. We're also the sole bidders for the 2015 Asian Cup hosting rights.

The standard of the A-League is quite poor by European standards but you have to remember it is only the 4th most popular code of football, is only 5 years old, and has a salary cap in place. Once the sport begins to grow and we start to see some youth coming through the league will get stronger. I think the major problem facing the FFA is like many other aspects of Australian culture we think of ourselves as a western nation and not part of Asia. The FFA were champing at the bit to be let into the AFC so they could get an easier path to the world cup but now we're in there they still want to stand apart. I think the best thing Australia could do is try and break into the Asian market. There are top players in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and the like who are more than good enough to cope in the A-League and are adored by their fans at home. If we could bring some Asian superstars to the A-League and start brokering television deals with countries like China, Japan, Korea etc Australia could become a major player in Asian football which is the fastest growing market in football today.

[Skol 401]

By coincidence I was at the Storm's game on Monday against Manly. First game I'd ever seen live of Rugby League and likely the last now!

There is a Union side starting up in Melbourne pretty soon i think (the Rebels). I'd much rather watch that than League or Aussie Rules.

Have only seen one football match (Melbourne Victory) and the standard was terrible.

As others have said, it'll be interesting to see what thorough auditing of other teams' books will reveal...

I detest Thugby league and all the people who run the fucking game.All the TV stations & newspapers in NSW especially the Daily Telegraph and Channel 9 are just propaganda outlets to that game.Every day it's 10 - 15 pages of RL and 1 page for Football if we are lucky.

It's the same in Victoria with the AFL and that crunt who runs it....He should be told to get fucked trying to blackmail the FFA over our attempt to get the World Cup and saying we won't be able to play at Etihad and the MCG.....Who the fuck does he think he is?

I agree that some of the A League games are pretty sub-standard, but I've seen some real crackers of games over the past few seasons and I'd rather watch a sub-standard game of Football than a game where they throw the ball backwards ( They should have a handle on the ball ) and then take 5 minutes to kick a conversion, or like in the AFL game of Aerial ping-pong where the fucking goals are 40 feet wide and 100 feet high and you actually get a point for missing the fuckin inside goals.

The problem is that they are all terrified that Football will make inroads if we get the World Cup and that will eat into their fan base further down the track.

Yeah the situation you describe with the papers and news is exactly the same here with AFL. It's incredible how much coverage is devoted to it. It's impressive to watch from a physical point of view - these guys are unbelievably fit. However, as you've pointed out, it's pretty much the rugby version of basketball.

World Cup in Australia would be a great idea. Obviously the seasonal aspect would be a problem but there are more than enough world class stadiums and facilities to host it. I'm sure Melbourne would still use it as an excuse to build another one though - they sure do love building stadiums.

It'll be interesting to see how football gets on here because right now Melbourne are getting humped off all the Asian teams. Interesting point about the Asian market - there must be massive potential there in terms of audience figures (and thus income) as well as players.