Parramatta paid a clothing provider at least $80,000 for goods the club has no record of receiving as officials investigate whether players - including former forward Daniel Harrison - were beneficiaries of the arrangement.
Fairfax Media can reveal invoices were paid to Zibara for promotional clothing for the Eels' 2014 study tour to Seattle, as well as game-day merchandise. However, the club has no record of the goods being received from the menswear outlet.
More drama: Eels players say they keep their focus on football and not off-field dramas. Photo: Getty Images
Leba Zibara of Zibara Clothing was part of an Eels delegation that visited a number of major sporting and business organisations including then-NFL champions Seattle Seahawks. The club invoiced Zibara an amount of around $13,000 but the club refused to confirm whether a payment was recorded.
The NRL was already concerned that Zibara was one of several companies providing goods or services to Parramatta at highly inflated fees that were above the market rate. Investigators are now trying to determine where the money went and whether players or officials pocketed some of the takings.
Fairfax Media has been told former player Harrison was paid about $15,000 as a sweetener to prematurely end his association with the club. Harrison was recruited from Manly for the 2013 season on a two-year deal and played seven games for the blue and golds that year. However, he returned for a second stint with the Sea Eagles the following season despite having a year to run on his Parramatta deal. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Harrison.
"The club is working closely with the NRL and will include these matters as part of the internal investigation," a Parramatta Eels spokesperson said.
Leba Zibara did not respond to calls on Tuesday.
Other companies that have been paid "overs" for their services include Green Options and Egroup Security.
There is no suggestion the companies have acted improperly, but the NRL is looking into why they were paid exorbitant fees.
"Any information which arises during the investigation period will be looked at by the integrity unit," an NRL spokesperson said.
The latest dramas are part of a seemingly endless string of catastrophes Parramatta's board and administration have brought upon the western franchise. The club is in serious danger of being sanctioned over a series of transgressions, most notably a third-party arrangement for Anthony Watmough that was not properly disclosed to head office. The club is facing the prospect of losing competition points, large fines and the sacking of staffers if it can be proven they breached the salary cap.
The pressure is mounting on chairman Steve Sharp and his deputy, Tom Issa, to stand down. However, it is understood the pair have no intention of doing so, raising the prospect of members passing a no-confidence or spill motion at the upcoming annual general meeting.
Eels players were trying their best to not get distracted by the constant off-field dramas ahead of their blockbuster clash with Canterbury at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.
"We don't talk about that stuff, honestly it's been fine," said hooker Isaac De Gois. "We're boys, we just talk about footy. The stuff in the papers, it's not our concern, our concern is to play footy and win games."
Fellow hooker Kaysa Pritchard added: "We just worry about ourselves, whatever happens on that side of the footy club [isn't our concern]. We just come to training and turn up, the boys have been pretty good."
Replies
Part 34.
who are you jpav. Tell us a bit about yourself. It appears a couple of people think you are someone.
Lets find out who the real JPAV is. Can we get a little bio from yourself. Its hard to ignore the chiefs comments but everyone should be allowed to defend themselves.
One of the sad things about this is we have any immediate success people are now going to label us as cheats, what if we win the comp this year or next, you can only imagine the shit that will get dredged up to force the NRL to remove the premiership, thank god we didnt win one in the last few years, we'd be losing it for sure.
It is up to us to make sure they never get inside.
I suspect the NRL has been sitting on this for a while, they decided to close off the 2014 Cap investigation and probably wrote us a few 'anything else you wanna tell us?' letters and now we're backed into a corner.
I agree with Frankie, I reckon Sharp and Issa aren't too popular at the NRL.
Well done !
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