Rashays will consider resuming sponsorship negotiations with Canterbury after the club and NRL moved swiftly to sack the two players involved in the Port Macquarie schoolgirl sex scandal.
Rashays was on the verge of committing to a $2 million deal to become the major backer of the Bulldogs just as news broke that Corey Harawira-Naera and Jayden Okunbor had consensual sex with two schoolgirls during a visit to Port Macquarie.
The family restaurant quickly moved to disassociate itself from the "family club", leaving it the only team in the NRL without a major sponsor.
The contracts of Harawira-Naera and Okunbor were torn up last week when the NRL deemed they were "not fit and proper" for registration. Rashays owner Rami Ykmour was impressed by how the situation had been handled and hasn’t ruled out sponsoring Canterbury in the future.
"Absolutely, there is a chance, yes," he told the
Sun-Herald. "What they have done, I think they have made the right decision for the club.
"We have to learn how to forgive and move on in life. If you hold on to grudges, we will never go anywhere.
"How long it will take them to bounce back from it, only God knows. But in the current climate we are in, people have got bigger things in their heads than what has happened with the Canterbury Bulldogs, if you know what I mean."
Ykmour is an avid league fan, having played the game and supported Parramatta all his life. He said sponsoring an NRL club remains a goal.
"One-hundred per cent – whether it be with the Bulldogs or another club," he said. "Possibly other clubs. I’m not saying I’m closing the door on the Bulldogs, it just depends on what the NRL decides and when the competition goes back on and the rest of it.
d its leagues club went from a $5 million profit in 2018 to a $4.47 million loss just 12 months later. Given the leagues club is closed due to government restrictions, the Bulldogs can ill afford to remain without a sponsor for a protracted period.
Ykmour said there may be a role for his firm in the future given its commitment to sport.
“We’re right through the grassroots of cricket, we do Shires cricket, local football clubs, we sponsor a whole soccer club, we do AFL, rugby union,” he said.
“We just paid for a team to go to New Zealand, a young Illawarra side. I’m a sporting nut.”
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