The PLC has just issued the following release regarding Mario Libertini's resignation.
I will say of all the 3P guys Mario is the one that I've always had a decent relationship with and I heard that he was one of the few guys on the board who was against my membership suspension. I give him a lot of credit for taking this step away so as to allow the club to move on, and indeed I do believe this has been coming for a while.
UPDATE: The SMH has reported that the resignation has put a stop to an alleged, potential Lawrence Shepherd-led coup
His departure appeared to scupper plans for a possible challenge of Sharp’s leadership that had gathered pace before Friday’s board meeting. It is believed Lawrence Shepherd, a former ally of Sharp’s on the ParraFirst ticket, was considering a move against the chairman, forming what could have been seen as an unholy alliance with two directors who have ties to Spagnolo – Robert Sassen and Libertini. With Sharp retaining the support of deputy chairman Tom Issa and another director, Peter Serrao, it left the other member of the board, Geoff Gerard, potentially holding the casting vote at Friday’s meeting.
Parramatta Eels Director Mario Libertini has this afternoon advised the Parramatta Leagues Club Group that he will be resigning from the Boards of the Parramatta Leagues Club (PLC), Parramatta National Rugby League (PNRL) and Parramatta District Rugby League (PDRL).
Mr Libertini had advised some of his fellow Directors of his intention to resign at the end of April.
“My decision to resign is due to my increasing work commitments, which I feel do not enable me to properly fulfil my role as a director of PLC, PDRL and PNRL,” Mr Libertini said.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Steve Sharp and my fellow Directors for the opportunity to provide a contribution to the club that I love.”
“I leave my position as a Director without regret, knowing that, along with the current and former Board, I have played a role in fulfilling the enormous potential this club has.”
“I wish the Board and management of the Parramatta Leagues Club Group success in the future and I look forward to watching our team achieve the ultimate success of an NRL premiership.”
Chairman of Parramatta Leagues Club (PLC) & Parramatta National Rugby League (PNRL), Steve Sharp, said Mr Libertini has made a long-term contribution to the Eels, both as a club corporate partner since 1986 and in various Board roles since 2009.
“Mario’s passion for the club is obvious, and on behalf of the Board and the club I would like to thank him for the time and effort that he has shown the club, its Members and fans," Mr Sharp said.
“We wish him all the best in his future endeavours."
Replies
Wow!
who does this open up a spot on the board for?
I didn't say the work commitments thing wasn't an excuse. I said I've heard for a little while he was thinking of dropping off and I'm sure he wishes he had of done so, before this latest episode broke.
Mario has definitely been very loyal to Roy. You can judge him on that, however you like. I can only judge people on how they treat me, and that's all I'm commenting on.
Personally, I think this will be a be a big test to see the true calibre of some of our current directors. The fastest way for our club to get rid of this issue and to move on, is for the directors who are anyway involved to step down and move on. If you do care about the club that's what you do.
Does this mean there is going to be a heap of jostling as Mario was on both boards and something tells me that what Roy wants for the Football Club board and what Steve wants for the LC board will be miles apart.
Ha! Like that will ever happen.
Fong, you and I differ on our opinion of Tom Issa and we'll agree to disagree there, but Peter Serrao is an A quality human being, who has a strong commercial background and an even stronger football background. Finding people who have experience in both areas is very rare.
More from the SMH:
The Eels’ off-field dramas have taken another twist with director Mario Libertini resigning from the board of the Parramatta Leagues Club on Thursday night.
The exit of Libertini came on the eve of Friday’s PLC board meeting, which will discuss the club’s fresh internal investigation into tampering of memberships as well as this month’s farcical annual general meeting. Fairfax Media on Wednesday reported the inquiry had so far uncovered systematic backdating of up to 150 memberships in the lead-up to last year’s PLC elections. It was also revealed the Eels’ archives storeroom near the Leagues Club was broken into last week, with police called over suspected stolen records.
Parramatta chairman Steve Sharp has labelled the tampering of memberships, allegedly for vote-stacking purposes, as disturbing and vowed to press on with an investigation and support the involvement of ‘‘relevant law enforcement authorities’’. Among the memberships found to have been entered into the database and backdated by three years over a two-day period in April last year were many associates, friends and family of former chairman Roy Spagnolo, including six people with the same surname. There were also three members of the Libertini family.
PLC chief executive Bevan Paul told Fairfax Media this week the Eels’ probe had not determined who was behind the tampering, found to have taken place on club computers mainly in the three-hour period between 6am and 9am when the Leagues Club is not open. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Libertini, and he said on Thursday night he was departing from both the PLC and Parramatta District Rugby League boards due to increasing work commitments.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Steve Sharp and my fellow directors for the opportunity to provide a contribution to the club that I love," Libertini said in an Eels statement.
“I leave my position as a director without regret, knowing that, along with the current and former board, I have played a role in fulfilling the enormous potential this club has. I wish the board and management of the Parramatta Leagues Club Group success in the future, and I look forward to watching our team achieve the ultimate success of an NRL premiership.”
The Parramatta statement said Libertini had advised directors of an intention to resign at the end of last month.
Sharp said: “Mario’s passion for the club is obvious, and on behalf of the board and the club I would like to thank him for the time and effort that he has shown the club, its members and fans."
His departure appeared to scupper plans for a possible challenge of Sharp’s leadership that had gathered pace before Friday’s board meeting. It is believed Lawrence Shepherd, a former ally of Sharp’s on the ParraFirst ticket, was considering a move against the chairman, forming what could have been seen as an unholy alliance with two directors who have ties to Spagnolo – Robert Sassen and Libertini. With Sharp retaining the support of deputy chairman Tom Issa and another director, Peter Serrao, it left the other member of the board, Geoff Gerard, potentially holding the casting vote at Friday’s meeting.
The exit of Libertini, though, leaves only six directors on the board and should guarantee Sharp retains the chairmanship. While the investigation into membership tampering will be on the agenda on Friday, so will the AGM of May 5. The chairman’s opponents blame Sharp squarely for how the night unravelled.
Several resolutions, including one to adopt former Macquarie Bank executive Bill Moss as an eighth and independent director, were rejected. In embarrassing scenes, a resolution to increase the directors’ honorarium to $20,000 also included a proposal to give the chairman a $60,000 annual fee, a detail that had not been foreshadowed and was admitted to be an ‘‘error’’ – but was still put to a vote.
Another resolution – to extend the term of future boards from two to three years – was abandoned before even going to members when the board accepted a claim by former chairman Denis Fitzgerald that its wording was unlawful under the Registered Clubs Act.
The meeting began with Sharp’s former teammate Terry Leabeater – a Spagnolo factional warrior – booted from the auditorium over abusive messages sent to Sharp, and ended with the sight of sworn enemies Spagnolo and Fitzgerald shaking hands.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/parramatta-eels-dire...
Well well well, Mario has fallen on his sword before he was pushed, he might be a decent fellow but i believe he has been part of the rot, especially with his alliances with a few grubs there, the cancer is slowly being removed, and Mario do you seriously believe that people will buy into your excuse here as to why you resigned, you cant be serious mate, i sense it was getting a bit to hot for you buddy after the latest revelations and the revelations you know that are just around the corner, i'd presume your a worried man.
And this article happens to come out AFTER i broke the news of the Libertini, Shepherd and Sassen yesterday on 1EE, to you three clowns, everybody that matters has been onto your intensions for a while now, so you 3 did a poor job of an attempted coup, remember the walls have ears fellas.
One more thing, I'd actually like to congratulate Mario for doing the best thing for the club and walking away.
Everybody who has covered themselves with shame by their association with Roy Spagnolo should walk away from the club, that includes all Roys friends, family, stooges, board allies and anybody that voted for the man, if you love the club its time to walk away and never return, Roy you should be the first to go, im not sure how you can look yourself in the mirror let alone turn up at the club, you must have no shame at all, you are as good as done Roy, you will NEVER be voted on the board again, your reputation precedes now, you need to walk away champ.
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