Vodafone Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah today “totally refuted” a Fairfax Media story which made drink-driving claims against one of the club’s players.
He said the club was “extremely disappointed’ the allegations had been published by a number of Fairfax Media outlets including the Sunday Star-Times and Sunday News last weekend as well as appearing online on www.stuff.co.nz.
It was claimed a Warriors player had been “arrested for drink-driving and giving a false name to police – but has secured name suppression”. The story also said the player involved “hasn’t told the club about it”.
Scurrah said the claims had no basis at all.
“They’re absolutely untrue and have caused us a lot of hurt and embarrassment,” he said.
“The accusations have been a distraction for our players in their last week of preseason training before Christmas.
“It has been embarrassing for the club as a whole, for our sponsors, the NRL, our members and other stakeholders to have such false claims made about one of our players.
“The statement that a player had been arrested for drink-driving and giving a false name to police as well as securing name suppression is without any foundation whatsoever.
“It’s hugely disappointing all-round.”
Scurrah said the club was working positively with Fairfax Media to ensure appropriate action was taken to remedy the damage caused by publication of the story by all sources.