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Glory accepts salary cap punishment

Apr 17, 2015
Perth coach Kenny Lowe

Perth coach Kenny Lowe

The A-League’s salary cap saga is finally over, with Perth Glory accepting Football Federation Australia’s punishment over the matter.

Glory will miss the finals and pay $269,000 in fines after being found guilty of exceeding the cap by about $400,000 this season.

But the club won’t lose any points next season, despite being issued a third show-cause notice earlier this week, relating to an additional $100,000 in player payments and benefits that allegedly weren’t declared.

FFA said that because this fell under the same period and the penalties handed down were already harsh, an additional punishment wasn’t warranted.

The Glory were preparing to take the league’s governing body to court over the matter, arguing the FFA board didn’t have the right to preside over the salary cap allegations levelled at the club.

But during a six-hour appeals hearing in front of an independent panel on Wednesday night, the Glory accepted FFA’s board acted within its rights.

That determination produced a domino effect.

Jason Brewer resigned as Perth’s chief executive on Thursday afternoon.

And then seven hours later, FFA and the Glory sent out a media release, confirming Perth would accept the salary cap sanctions in full.

Brewer took full responsibility for the club’s plight and personally apologised for the events of the past few months that led to the Glory’s downfall.

But right to the end, he remained adamant Perth were innocent of cheating the salary cap.

“There have been no secret payments, there’ll be no third-party payments, nor do we maintain a book of shadow accounts,” Brewer said.

“Everything we have goes through the club’s books, which we provide to the FFA each year.”

The Glory are sitting equal second on the A-League table, but will be relegated to seventh by the fast-approaching end of the season.

The move will promote Brisbane into the six-team finals.

Brewer said he felt sorry for coach Kenny Lowe and the player group.

“It’s cast an incredibly dark shadow over all their achievements on the pitch,” Brewer said.

“It’s disgusting and appalling they have to play with that shadow over them.

“We now face some of the darkest days in the club’s recent years.”

With the matter finalised, the Glory face a nervous wait to see whether any of their players walk out on the club.

It’s understood Glory players may now have the right to break their contracts because of the club’s actions.

FFA chief executive David Gallop said although he felt sorry for the Glory’s fans and players, it was imperative for the league to uphold its standards.

“We understand that (Glory owner) Tony Sage has today accepted the resignation of the former CEO, who has accepted full responsibility, and acted alone,” Gallop said.

“We will work with Tony to ensure that Perth Glory rebuilds and has processes in place to ensure this does not happen again.”

The Glory will be back in action on Sunday when they host Melbourne City at nib Stadium.

– AAP

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