National Rugby League side Parramatta Eels Chair Steve Sharp "is promising Supreme Court action should his club be stripped of competition points," saying, "We’ve exhausted ourselves to make this right," according to Nick Walshaw of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH.
Despite opening the NRL season in 20 days, the club is yet to learn if it "will be docked four points by the governing body for salary breaches."
Elsewhere, the club’s football department was also shown to have recorded a loss of A$8M in '15, putting it "deeper into the red than any rival."
Sharp insisted that the Eels football department would be "self-sufficient" by '18.
The chairman "was also confident his club, already buoyed by a shock Auckland Nines title, would start the season on zero points." Sharp said, "But I’ve always been confident of that. If we were sitting around on our hands doing nothing then, yes, penalize us. But we’re spending all our time and resources on getting this right. And if the penalty stands? If it does -- and we don’t think it will come to that -- we’d fight. Supreme Court. Obviously I’m a Parramatta man and love the club. But starting on minus four points ... I just don’t think the game needs that sort of drama."
Sharp "pointed out that, despite his club’s deficit, the Parramatta group was in an extremely strong financial position," with the Leagues Club turning a profit of A$12M ($8.5M) (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 2/11).
