The New Zealand Warriors will become the first team in the history of rugby league to start the season on negative points.

The NRL board has penalised the Warriors four competition points and $430,000 for salary cap breaches related to the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

The Warriors will start the season on minus four points when they open their 2006 campaign against Melbourne at Ericsson Stadium on March 12.

The Warriors, who breached the $3.36 million dollar cap by almost $1 million, have five business days to appeal the breach notice but are unlikely to do so.

Included in the breach are undisclosed payments, unregistered agreements with third parties and guaranteed payments to players after their retirement.

The NRL absolved the current administration of any wrong doing and took their cooperation into consideration when levelling the penalty.

"I can certainly say that the current administration has cooperated fully and we accept that they have not been involved in this," said NRL chief executive David Gallop.

"At this stage, we've got no evidence that the owners were involved in these transactions."

It is understood New Zealand national captain Ruben Wiki and Kangaroos prop Steve Price's deals were under scrutiny although the NRL declined to name the players involved.

"Competition points we believe as a deterrent acts as a very strong disincentive to others," said Gallop, when asked if the punishment was too lenient.

In 2002, the Bulldogs were fined $500,000 and stripped of 37 competition points for a systematic attempt to cheat the salary cap.

The points were the total the Bulldogs had accumulated at that stage of the season robbing them of a likely minor premiership.

The Warriors, who were represented by chairman Maurice Kidd, chief executive Wayne Scurrah, executive director of football John Hart and lawyer Liz Style arrived at NRL headquarters in Sydney on Monday morning.

They were still there almost 10 hours later when the verdict was finally reached.

At 1530 AEDT, Gallop made a recommendation to the six-member board comprising of ARL representatives John Chalk, Bob Millward and Barry Pierce and News Limited board members Katie Page, Gorden Tallis and chairman Keith Brody.

A large media contingent was on hand for the announcement.

"It is up to everyone to accept that the club has paid a price and that it should now be able to move forward," said Gallop.

The spotlight will now turn to the previous administration led by former general manager Spiro Tsiros, who reportedly handled contract negotiations, and former CEO Mick Watson.

Both had previously denied deliberately cheating the cap.

"Of course we don't encourage participants in our game breaking the rules," said Gallop when asked about the previous administration.

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