The salary cap deals which brought the Sharks and Wests Tigers undone

A former Cronulla director allegedly paid money into a company established to provide third-party agreements for Sharks players in 2017 as the club attempted to stave off rival offers for members of the previous season's premiership-winning team.

The orchestrated bid to cheat the salary cap has put Cronulla under further financial stress after they were fined $750,000 for breaches dating back to 2013 and will cost the Sharks at least one player as they have to operate on a salary cap $353,000 less than other clubs for the next two seasons.

However, NRL officials insist Cronulla's historic 2016 grand final triumph is not tainted as the breaches before 2017 were TPAs for small amounts and the Sharks had been under the salary cap but did not disclose the deals.

Up to nine current or former Cronulla players are understood to have had undisclosed TPAs and NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said he could "see a point in the future where a player could be sanctioned for a salary cap breach".

NRL chief operating officer Nick Weeks said action may also have been taken against some player managers if the new agent accreditation scheme had been in place before last December.

"We've spoken to players, we have interviewed them and some of them have been very honest with us in relation to what occurred at Sharks, and in circumstances where people are honest and they come forward we deal with them in different ways that may not involve a sanction," Weeks said.

The salary cap investigation into the Sharks began last August after Cronulla CEO Barry Russell contacted the NRL with concerns about payments to two former players he had discovered after taking up the role.

Greenberg praised Russell for his honesty, which was rewarded with the NRL suspending $500,000 of the $750,000 fine imposed on the club.

"Effectively through his actions, Barry Russell has saved his club $500,000," Greenberg said.

The investigation found a supplier who had a favourable deal with the Sharks had provided small TPAs for Cronulla players between 2013 and 2016.

However, after they won the premiership a number of their players were in demand from rival clubs, and the NRL uncovered evidence that the Cronulla board endorsed the establishment of a company which was used to fund TPAs.

"The club embarked upon a program that really began in earnest in 2017, to set up a structure to try and procure third-party agreements for players," Weeks said. "They did that through a separate company.

"It was set up with the endorsement of the board of the club, funded by a director and was used to arrange and procure third-party agreement for their players."

Weeks said the value of the illegal TPAs totalled about $750,000 but most of them weren't paid.

Details of the promised payments to players were found on spreadsheet sent in an email to a former employee by a former director.

The Sharks have lost coach Shane Flanagan during the salary cap investigation for breaching the conditions of his nine-month suspension in 2014 after the NRL discovered more than 800 emails and text messages between him and Cronulla officials while he was banned from having any contact with the club.

Flanagan, who parted company with Cronulla in January, remains unregistered and any club wanting to sign him will need to approach the NRL but Greenberg and Weeks wouldn't be willing to have such a discussion at any time this year, virtually ruling out the possibility of him returning in 2020.

The Sharks were fined $500,000 - reduced from $800,000 - for continuing to engage with Flanagan over issues such as player recruitment for the 2015 season.

No action has been taken against any other current or former Sharks officials over the salary cap breaches as those involved are either no longer in the game or there is insufficient evidence against them.

Wests Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe will be allowed to return to the game on June 19 after serving a six-month suspension and the club will be forced to operate $320,000 below the salary cap for each of the next two seasons after deceiving the NRL over an ambassadorship agreement with Robbie Farah.

The $639,000 ambassadorship agreement was signed on the same day as a termination deal between Farah and the Tigers in 2016 but hidden from the NRL.

Pascoe later made a 101A application to the NRL for salary cap dispensation and claimed the Tigers had needed to remove Farah from the club because he was a destabilising influence.

The NRL was presented with two lever arch files to support the club's case and the ambassadorship agreement was never disclosed.

Had it been, the NRL would have included the $639,000 in the Tigers' salary cap as it had text messages which suggested Farah only agreed to leave the club after being guaranteed the four-year ambassadorship deal.

The NRL has approved ambassadorship deals for Anthony Minichiello in his final year with Sydney Roosters and Billy Slater at the Storm but Farah left the Tigers in acrimonious circumstances after a falling out with former coach Jason Taylor.

The former Test hooker is now back at the Tigers after an 18-month stint at South Sydney.