Catalans owner Bernard Guasch fined for Grand Final comments
The RFL has fined Catalans owner Bernard Guasch £10,000 for his comments following their Grand Final defeat.
The decisions of the match officials in their loss to St Helens in October frustrated Guasch. He then vowed never again to allow his team to play a final under English referees.
“As long as I’m president of the Catalans Dragons, I’ll never play a Super League final again until we have three Australian referees,” Guasch told Perpignan-based L’Independent newspaper.
The Rugby Football League’s head of match officials Steve Ganson branded Guasch’s comments “ridiculous”. The RFL referred the matter to its compliance department for investigation.
RFL statement on Bernard Guasch tribunal
A statement from the RFL said: “Bernard Guasch, owner and president of Catalans Dragons, has tonight been fined £10,000 (£2,500 suspended for three years) for comments made about the match officials following last month’s Super League Grand Final.”
The panel decided Guasch failed to adhere to the RFL’s Respect and Tackle It policies. This is in terms of behavioural standards, use of unacceptable language, making public statements about match officials and conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game.
Super League strikes TV deal with Channel 4
Super League will be shown live on free-to-air television for the first time in 2022 after officials agreed a two-year deal with Channel 4.
The Leeds-based broadcaster will show 10 matches a year. Starting with Leeds’ opening game against Warrington on February 12.
The remaining nine games will be across the season. It will include two end-of-season play-off fixtures.
The move ends Sky Sports’ 26-year monopoly of live Super League. Its a by-product of the new two-year agreement with the satellite broadcaster.
Sky will continue to show 66 matches a season including the Magic Weekend and the Grand Final. Additionally, they will have the first pick of games in each of the regular rounds as well as the play-offs.
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