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Boycott threat Contract dispute threatens Australia's cup defense
SYDNEY (Reuters) -- The world champion Australian team said on Thursday it was threatening to boycott the World Cup in a bid to force Auckland Warriors' team management to honor playing contracts. Auckland-based entrepreneur Eric Watson's Cullen Investments bought the Australian National Rugby League (NRL) club from the financially struggling Tainui Tribe last week in a deal approved by the NRL. Rugby League Players' Association (RLPA) president Tony Butterfield said on Thursday that the boycott threat was a stand against the new owners' refusal to roll over players' contracts and the NRL's failure to enforce such action. NRL chief executive David Moffett was not immediately available for comment. Moffett said in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday: 'The NRL has no legal or moral obligation to the players because contracts are agreements between them and the Auckland Warriors. "People like Cullen Investments and the NZ league can't be forced to pick up the debts of others." The chief executive of the Australian Rugby League (ARL), which administers the Australian team, Geoff Carr, told Reuters he could not give a view on the issue "because I really don't understand it". "It's got nothing to do with me," Carr said. "There's been a threat of a boycott by all NRL players in the ARL team." Carr said he would meet Butterfield and Moffett on Friday morning in his capacity as ARL chief executive to ensure that the players flew out of Sydney on Sunday. The Australians, who have thrashed Papua New Guinea and a New Zealand Residents' XIII by a combined total of 190-0 in warm-up matches, play England at Twickenham on the opening day of the cup on October 28. Fittler gives his support "(Australian captain) Brad Fittler has come to the support of the Auckland players and many of the senior players all support this. They see this as a dangerous precedent," Butterfield told Channel Ten. "There are no contracts basically out there." Butterfield said the RLPA would be contacting NRL players representing European countries in the World Cup to ask them to join the boycott if it goes ahead. "I am very sympathetic with what the Auckland boys are going through and I along with the players that I have spoken to are very disappointed that this has occurred," Fittler said on the RLPA website. "I also find it difficult to understand how the NRL would allow this to happen as I think they have an obligation to look after the players, so the Auckland players have my full support." Butterfield said the RLPA had sent a letter to former New Zealand fullback Matthew Ridge, the new Warriors executive director, asking him to stop trying to persuade players to sign with the new club.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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