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Extract Archives for December 2000

31 December 2000
The South Sydney issue will be resolved. Remember where you heard it first. This matter will be sorted out before the appeal scheduled for May. The game does not want another court case and News Limited does not want another street march. Stay tuned.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0012/31/text/sport9.html

Murdoch sons battle to take over as News Corp Boss jpeg pdf

27 December 2000
Another Rugby League World Cup, another Australian victory. That's nine in 12 attempts, including the last six. Apart from the first 70 minutes of the final against New Zealand, Australia was rarely pushed. It ran out a 40-12 winner in the end. Hardly what you'd call close.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/phil_jones/news/2000/11/28/phil_jones/

Much as Soccer Australia insists it still controls the future of the national league, the pre-emptive strike by the players' union last week has thrown the reform process into confusion. The move by the Professional Footballers Association to register the Australian Premier League as a company caught Soccer Australia off-guard, and has since led to tense exchanges between leading SA officials and the PFA's chief executive, Brendan Schwab.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0012/27/sport/sport10.html

24 December 2000
What did you think of rugby league in 2000? I honestly don't know what to make of it. I felt it lacked a little something. Maybe it was the fact Souths were not there. A lot of people I talk to tend to think so.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0012/24/sport/sport14.html

23 December 2000
The folk at Channel 9, love 'em or hate 'em, have had a symbiotic relationship with league for the past 10 yonks. The network has promoted the hell out of the game, pushed it, pulled it, made it larger than life and sprinkled its coveted TV angel dust all over it to give it a glamour it otherwise never would have possessed. League was, in turn, great to Nine, pulling in viewers from all over and regularly registering match broadcasts in the top 10 watched television shows of the year, etc. But that symbiosis would appear to be over.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0012/23/text/sport11.html

Listen to David Moffett's comments regarding the 14 team competition and the likelihood of South's followers coming back to League. (You will need Real Player)
http://media1.f2.com.au/content/db/smil/league/2712.ram

17 December 2000
Souths president George Piggins says the NRL's new six-year, $42 million deal with Telstra "stinks" and has urged disenchanted rugby league fans to boycott Telstra as a phone carrier. The NRL announced the deal yesterday, with chief executive David Moffett saying it was "great news for rugby league" and "Santa Claus had come early".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0012/17/sport/sport11.html

13 December 2000
South Sydney continued to simmer, taking the NRL and News Limited through an eight week Federal Court case which the Rabbitohs ultimately lost. The club immediately appealed the decision and court action looms again for the game.
http://au.sports.yahoo.com/sports/20001213/aapleague/976680819-134783001.html

Former Souths, Canterbury, Wests and Manly hooker Jim Serdaris is set to resume his career next season by signing a contract with New Zealand Warriors or Wests Tigers within the next week. Serdaris after Souths lost the court case last month said that he wouldn't play Rugby League again and the game was dead without the Rabbitohs. After the emotion and anger has died down, Serdaris has had a change of heart and will once again play Rugby League at the highest level after failing to win a contract for the 2000 season when Manly merged with North Sydney to form the Northern Eagles.
http://rleague.com/newsa/

11 December 2000
The Latest BY GEORGE is up at the Official Souths site
http://www.souths.com.au/

NRL Happy to take a few hits from Souths
JPEG PDF

10 December 2000
Souths. They're at it again.
The news that broke on Thursday that they have been granted leave to appeal to the Federal Court in May against their exclusion from the NRL means sport's longest-running tragi-saga has at least another six months left in it. More lawyers, more tears, more protest marches, more bitterness and ill will let loose in a game that is in desperate need of the focus returning to football alone.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0012/10/text/sport16.html

9 December 2000
Kerry Stokes's subscription arm, C7, has made a revised pay-TV offer to the National Rugby League, shedding the merchandising conditions of the deal but maintaining insurance against "an act of bastardry" by rival Kerry Packer. C 7 has removed from its bid the demand for ground signage, sleeve logo, Internet and tables at corporate functions.
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/league/worldcup/2000/12/08/league1.html
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/league/worldcup/2000/12/08/league1.html



Meanwhile, a luncheon yesterday at the Sydney Cricket Ground - hosted by Australia's biggest union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining, Energy Union - raised more than $100,000 for South Sydney's appeal to the Full Bench of the Federal Court.

http://www.leaguehq.com.au/league/worldcup/2000/12/08/league2.html



8 December 2000
EIGHT clubs have been caught exceeding the salary cap in a major embarrassment to the NRL. Fines up to $1 million in total are expected to be imposed on the offenders. In a show of contempt for the rules, errant clubs have collectively broken the spending limit by about $2m.
More
file:///C:/my%20sites%20old/Homestead/Homesteads/southsydney/news081200.html



7 December 2000
South Sydney will be back in court on May 7 to appeal their exclusion from the National Rugby League. David Jackson QC will head Souths' legal team, which will attempt to have Justice Finn's Oct. 3 decision overturned.

http://www.ozleague.com/home.asp?ngref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Esouthsydney%2Ehomestead%2Ecom%2FPage15%7Ens4%2Ehtml



South Sydney will be back in court in May, again fighting for reinstatement to the National Rugby League.
The case will be heard over three days from May 7, after the Rabbitohs were granted leave to appeal against Justice Paul Finn's decision to deny their reinstatement to the national competition.
More
http://www.sportal.com.au/league.asp?i=news&id=5703



3 December 2000
The presidents and chief executives of the National Rugby League clubs have to stand up for themselves in the coming days to ensure the NRL secures the best financial deal on their behalf for the game's future.
If they don't stand as one, forces within the NRL will have their way and a tremendous opportunity may be lost forever.
More
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/league/worldcup/2000/12/03/leaguewc2.html



National Rugby League chairman Michael Hill believes it is critical to the game's future that whatever pay TV offer the NRL accepts, it must include substantial payments direct to the 14 clubs.
Hill said that did not mean he was backing the bid by Channel7's pay TV arm C7 which includes payments to each club of a minimum of $1.5million to just more than $2million, depending on subscription levels.
More
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/league/worldcup/2000/12/03/leaguewc3.html



2 December 2000
NORTH SYDNEY players still owed a combined $2 million after the club collapsed financially are poised to be offered a compromise deal. The out-of-pocket players include David Fairleigh, Glenn Morrison and Scott Pethybridge.
More
file:///C:/my%20sites%20old/Homestead/Homesteads/southsydney/news021200.html



1 December 2000
The Seven supremo has bulked up in the arm wrestle over pay-TV football rights. ROY MASTERS reports.
National Rugby League clubs were excited last night following the tabling of the richest TV deal in Australian sport - a half-billion-dollar bid for pay-TV rights from the Seven Network's subscription arm, C7 Sport.
More
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/league/worldcup/2000/12/01/leaguewc2.html



The National Rugby League (NRL) has had a firm seven-year, $350 million offer for pay television rights from the Optus C7 arm of the Seven television network. The offer was put to the chief executives of the NRL today with the breakdown of $50 million per year - divided into $28 million for the NRL, $21 for the clubs and $1 million for junior development.
More
http://www.abc.net.au/news/sport/rugbyleague/2000/11/item20001130230844_1.htm



National Rugby League chief executive David Moffett said he does not know of many people who think the league should have more than 14 teams. "I don't know of many who don't think 14 is the right number," Moffett said in Friday's editions of The Daily Telegraph. More
http://www.ozleague.com/news_article.asp?id=27816



THE Seven Network has offered $10 million of free advertising to the NRL in a last-ditch attempt to secure pay-television rights to the game.
NRL chief executive David Moffett briefed 13 club CEOs yesterday in Sydney on Seven's offer, detailing the proposed payment system that could see the clubs sharing $21million a year or more for the duration of the seven-year deal.
More
http://www.foxsports.com.au/common/story_page/0,5000,1472621%5E5927%5E%5Enbv,00.html