The NSW Rugby League is in turmoil after the sudden resignation of two of the game’s most powerful men on Friday afternoon.
Board Director, Nick Politis, and Chairman, George Peponis, both left with immediate effect over an ongoing controversial boardroom stoush.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), the stoush was related to the NSWRL’s annual general meeting on Friday afternoon and the nomination of Cronulla CEO, Dino Mezzatesta, for a spot on the board.
Mezzatesta nominated for the board on January 20, but the NSWRL waited until 48 hours out from voting to notify him that he was ineligible to run due to an alleged conflict of interest.
This meant that Politis and Geoff Gerard were elected unopposed on Friday, as well as country representatives John Anderson and Bob Walsh, 7 News reports.
Two independents were also appointed, with the only female director on the NSWRL board, Deborah Healy, also losing her spot on the board to William “Smiley” Johnstone.
But according to the SMH, Politis and Peponis resigned as a result of this treatment of Mezzatesta and Healy.
“I’m disappointed but I feel like I can leave the organisation having achieved a lot,” Peponis told the SMH after almost a decade in the top job.
This boardroom battle could now spill over to the NRL, with ARL Commission chair, Peter V’landys, expected to review the matter once he receives a formal complaint about the issue on Monday morning.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.
