Hundreds of Wests Tigers fans have rallied against the owners of struggling NRL club
Hundreds of fans marched against the West Tigers’ owners, demanding the state government and NRL intervene after years of mismanagement.
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne led the protest in Pratten Park on Saturday after 15 years of failure.
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The protest was sparked after two weeks of turmoil at the club, with all independent directors sacked from the board, CEO Shane Richardson resigning, the NRL sacking directors and giving coach Benji Marshall a new five-year contract.
In a statement posted on social media, Byrne said it would make zero difference to the management of West Tigers if the majority of the board was made up of appointees from the club’s owner Holman Barnes Group.
“Or to put it another way, it looks like the Holman Barnes Group is trying to put lipstick on a pig,” he said.
“This is an acknowledgment of how appalling the treatment of dismissed independent directors has been, and the pointlessness of reappointing them to a board over which they no longer have any control.
“These independent directors would be left toothless, leaving West Tigers in the same… dysfunctional situation.”
Byrne called on Gaming and Liquor NSW and the NRL to appoint administrators to run Holman Barnes and independent directors to run the Tigers.
Addressing around 1,000 protesters at the rally, Byrne announced that a new grassroots organization called West Tigers Unite would be formed to give fans a say at the club.
“When such a situation arises, when fans are excluded from decision-making processes and their voices are not listened to, we will benefit from successful examples around the world of fan associations established in different sports branches,” he said.
“We are all here because they didn’t listen to us, in fact when we complain that they didn’t listen to the fans they say ‘no it’s not their club, it’s our club’.
“If these people are allowed to continue as they have been, we won’t be in the NRL in a few years.”
