FFA set to hammer Glory for salary cap breaches
Perth Glory’s A-League title quest appears in tatters, with a long-running investigation by Football Federation Australia finding the club guilty of widespread salary cap rorting.
Glory will be issued with a second show cause notice and are set to be given five days to respond to allegations they failed to disclose extensive player payments over three seasons from 2012 to 2015 which should have been reported under the league’s salary cap regulations.
The benefits are believed to be in eight different areas in the form of accommodation and travel costs, car allowances and third-party agent fees.
Any sanctions will almost certainly spell a lethal blow to Glory’s 2014-15 campaign.
The FFA has the power to strip the club of premiership points or even rule Perth out of the finals if the fail to produce legitimate reasons to defend the findings. Hefty fines would almost certainly be imposed by the national sport’s governing body.
Perth had kept themselves in the title hunt until now despite the scrutiny of the investigation, sitting in fourth place on the A-League table just a point adrift of league leaders Wellington Phoenix.
The damning findings were issued tonight after the FFA first launched the investigation into alleged salary cap irregularities in December.
The allegations were originally leaked to press in the eastern States from a whistleblower believed to have past connections to the club.
The FFA demanded more information in February about Glory’s handling of its financial affairs after officials flew to Perth to interview club officials and inspect accounts at the club’s West Leederville office.
Glory owner Tony Sage said at the time of that visit he was confident Glory would escape with a warning for the alleged failure to declare player benefits.
“All we’ve done, according to them, is not properly identify the benefits that some of the players got,” Sage said in February.
“Even if we did put them in, we wouldn’t have breached the salary cap.
“As a first offence, we’d expect to get just a warning, but it’s in their hands.
“I’m not concerned. If we did breach the salary cap, I’d be very worried.”
Rival club Sydney FC were fined $129,000 and docked three points in 2006 in the only other reported case of salary cap breaches in A-League history.
