Glory goes to court in bid to beat salary cap punishment

A legal stoush looms between Perth Glory and Football Federation Australia after the A-League club was booted out of the finals for cheating the salary cap.

Perth Glory chief executive Jason Brewer. (Getty) Source: Getty Images Asia Pacific

Glory was fined $269,000 and relegated to seventh spot on the table after being found guilty of rorting the salary cap over the previous three years.

Perth was found to have exceeded the cap by around $400,000 this season alone, with FFA claiming the club failed to disclose payments and benefits to at least six players.

FFA chief executive David Gallop said he expects Perth's management to be removed in the wake of the mess.

But Glory revealed on Friday night it had filed with the Supreme Court of Western Australia seeking an injunction against FFA's verdict.

If that falls flat, Glory will go through the FFA's appeals process in a bid to either overturn the decision, or reduce the penalty.

Glory was also found guilty of salary cap irregularities during the previous two seasons.

"This season, our player payments, paid under the salary cap, are forecast to be below that salary cap threshold of $2.55 million," Glory chief executive Jason Brewer said.

"All the payments this club makes - to its coaches, players, administrative staff - are all made through the club's accounts here.

"(They are) made by our finance department, recorded in our ledger, and those amounts are all audited at the end of the year by an independent auditor.

"We go into the next games on the basis that for all Perth Glory fans out there, our players are playing for points."

Gallop earlier claimed Perth deliberately hid salary cap rorting for three seasons and deserved to be banned from this season's finals.

"The breach this season involves the deliberate failure to disclose payments and benefits to at least six players," Gallop said.

"Where you've got deliberate concealment, you need to impose strict penalties to send a deterrent.

"Certainly it would be clear that the management have engaged in these practices and, in our view, it would be unlikely that management would stay in place."

Glory was sitting equal first at the time of the punishment, but it will now finish the season in seventh spot unless they successfully appeal.

Should the original punishment stand, Brisbane Roar is likely to sneak into the finals.

The FFA said in addition to the deliberate salary cap breaches, Perth also broke rules regarding the disclosure of payments in the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons.

The peak governing body said Perth was guilty of three breaches, including payments outside of a standard player contract; payments to a player's family member; payments of travel costs; provision of motor vehicles; and accommodation benefits.

TIMELINE OF PERTH GLORY'S SALARY CAP WOES:

17 December: Fairfax publishes a report claiming it has seen documents showing Perth Glory may have exceeded the salary cap for up to three seasons. It claims Glory failed to disclose numerous benefits it paid to players and their agents.

12 February: FFA issues Glory with show-cause notice alleging the club failed to disclose numerous benefits to players over a three-year period. Perth Glory chief executive Jason Brewer claims the club will still be well under the salary cap even if these other costs are included.

16 February: FFA staff head to Perth's offices to conduct a salary cap audit.

1 April: FFA issues Glory with second show-cause notice relating to alleged serious breaches. FFA claims Glory failed to disclose reportable payments and significantly exceeded the salary cap.

8 April: Glory responds to second show-cause notice, but only after being granted a two-hour extension of their deadline.

10 April: FFA hands down the heaviest penalties in A-League history after finding Glory deliberately and consistently cheated the salary cap. Glory announces appeal process has started.