Plymouth Raiders struggled financially and some of its staff went without pay for seven months, according to former coaches Daryl Corletto and Johnny White.
The Australian duo spoke to the Plymouth Herald for the first time regarding the club’s sudden downfall from Playoff places to missing out on the post-season.
And Corletto puts the dramatic dip of form down to mental issues due to the team not getting paid or time – or at all.
He assures all that they have now since been paid.
Daryl Corletto said that the Plymouth Raiders deserved to hear the truth.
“I have sat back for four months now, as has Johnny, and we haven’t said a word to anyone about what was going on,” Corletto explained to the Herald.
“The reason why we have sat back quietly and allowed our names to be dragged through the mud from people at the club in regards to different things that have happened, is because we hadn’t been paid.
“Myself and Johnny didn’t get a penny since Christmas and the players from January onwards were getting paid late each month.
“That made it very difficult to get the playing group to turn up and compete every day and for myself and Johnny, we want to say thank you for turning up in a difficult situation.
“It was a frustrating and a terrible situation to be in. We had a good run in the BBL Trophy and please understand that this is no disrespect to Leicester because they were definitely the better team on the day, but we found out on the Friday before flying up to Glasgow that the boys weren’t going to be paid that month.
“The first question the playing group have is how late is it going to be? Will it be a month, a few days, a few weeks?
“The club couldn’t give answers so going into the game the boys’ mind-sets were shot and when you aren’t getting paid it is fair enough.
“That went on for months, as I said I wasn’t paid from Christmas and I am trying to support a young family and I brought my wife here from the other side of the world with a seven-month-old baby.
“Now we finally have our money and it is time to speak up and let the truth out at what was going on at that club.”
Johnny White claims the Raiders’ downfall at the latter stages of last season was due to the players not being paid and the fear of when they would get their next paycheck.
Bob Widdecombe, who was the club’s owner last season released a statement to the Herald regarding the issue.
Because we had a short term cash flow problem, I went to the team training sessions at Marjons on several occasions to explain to everybody that their salaries might be a bit delayed and they all accepted that.
“Every player, including Daryl and Johnny, have been paid in full since then.”
He also stated: “The majority of last year’s team refused to return this coming season if Daryl and Johnny were involved with the club as they found them to be impossible to work with.”
When asked for a response to that comment, White revealed that he wouldn’t be surprised if some of the players had said that.
The Australian put that down to the financial issues that the club were going through.
White, who was released from his post after a report from the BBC showed that he had no legitimate coaching experience did not answer any questions regarding the issue due to legal reasons.