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The NRL has short-changed its players’ retirement fund to the tune of $10 million, instead using the money to fund operational costs for more than two years.

Speaking on Sunday to Fox League Live, Fox Sports’ chief NRL reporter James Hooper revealed the shortfall as the league aims to forge a path out of the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s supposed to be $30 million in that fund at the moment but as it sits right now there’s only $20 million in there,” Hooper said.

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“That’s because the NRL haven’t put the money they were supposed to for the last two-and-a-half years into that fund. They’ve been using it for operational costs and for day-to-day capital.”

He added: “It is an issue I know that has angered a lot of people in the NRL club land and I think that will certainly be a big part of the conversation tomorrow when they start to thrash out and go over all the finances.”

League legends Mick Ennis and Braith Anasta were stunned by the revelation, saying the NRL could now have a ticking time bomb on its hands.

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“That’s massive,” Anasta said on the program. “That’s a huge story and that’s one that will fracture the relationship between I would think the players and the game.”

“If the NRL have undercut money from the players’ retirement fund this will be enormous,” Ennis added.

“Imagine Cameron Smith - who is well set-up at the back-end of his career - Darius Boyd and others who are about to retire and they’re counting on this money that they’ve been promised and then all of a sudden they get to D-Day and retire, (the NRL) turn around and go, ‘sorry mate, instead of that amount of money we haven’t been putting money in there for the last two years.”