The Melbourne Storm have been stripped of their 2007 and 2009 NRL Premierships, the minor premierships of 2006-8 and of their 2010 competition points after yesterday admitting to a salary cap scandal.
The breaches amount to at least $1.7 million over five years.
The club will lose all competition points earned to date in 2010 and will accrue no more points this season, irrespective of how many games they win.
These measures are effective immediately.
The club has also been fined $500,000 and will be forced to return $1.1 million in prize money earned from their premiership wins.
The funding will be distributed evenly among the other 15 clubs.
NRL chief executive David Gallop expressed his disappointment.
"While the amount itself is cause for concern, the most damning indictment is the systematic attempt by persons within the club to conceal payments from the salary cap auditor and, it would now seem certain from the club's board and from its owners, on an ongoing basis," he said.
"It was through this system that they were able to attract and retain some of the biggest names in rugby league.
"In doing so they have let down the game, the players and
the fans of the Melbourne Storm.
"Clearly there were some individuals who knew what was going on and perhaps many who did not.
"By nature, that means innocent parties will suffer as a result of this punishment but the persons responsible are those who constructed the scheme and anyone who knowingly signed a false statutory declaration to deceive the game.
"It would be unfair now on the players and fans of every other club in the competition to allow the Storm to enter this year's finals series or to retain the titles they won.
"As a game we will do all we can to restore the faith of each of those parties but there is no alternative now but to deal with the situation that has been so deliberately engineered.
"As was the case with Canterbury after 2002, the only other instance in which we have seen such an elaborate and contrived set of accounts, there is the chance for the club to begin a rebuilding process with the fans and the game by the way it conducts itself in the weeks and months ahead.
"A significant step in that process has been the way the Melbourne Board has reacted to the information the salary cap team tabled this week."
Source: The Canberra Times
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