Now, a bitter dispute between the NSW Rugby League and NSW Leagues Club is about to reach boiling point over millions of dollars considered "the game's inheritance".

The NSWRL is furious that an agreement between the two bodies – as set in stone by a written guarantee dating back to 1937 – has not been honoured since the sale of the NSW Leagues Club's Phillip Street premises last year for just $15.5 million.

Not only is the NSWRL still angry about the premises being sold without its knowledge, and grossly undervalued, but it has now demanded $9 million from the sale, to pump into grassroots football.

Negotiations between NSWRL chief executive Dave Trodden and Leagues Club chief executive Chris Bowden have stalled in recent weeks, with the matter sure to come to a head at a fiery annual general meeting of the leagues club on May 6.

The NSWRL wants to see the money before the profits from the sale of the premises are frittered away in trading losses. In the past four years the Leagues Club hemorrhaged significantly, losing as much as $800,000 a year for the past two years.

"We're very concerned about the trading position of the NSW Leagues Club, and their continuing losses, to the point we're we are concerned what will happen to the residue of funds from the sale of their premises," Trodden said. "In our view that's an asset which should be used for grassroots football in rugby league in NSW rather than funding continuing losses for the NSW Leagues Club.

"There are two stark alternatives: the club continues to incur losses and the money is wasted. The other alternative is that the money is put to the use of the people who the club was originally designed to benefit – rugby league players in NSW."

The document at the heart of the dispute dates back to March 25, 1937.

Over time, the NSWRL has provided funds to the Leagues Club to assist it in developing and renovating the premises in Phillip Street. A debenture secures the funds owing to the NSWRL and has always been reflected in its books. This year, though, it has been removed from the books of the Leagues Club without explanation.

"When constitutions are drafted by the forefathers of our game in a particular way, to ensure the protection of the game, there's a reason why: to protect against the very situation that's come to fruition now," Trodden said. "The forefathers were concerned then, and we're concerned about that now. We've supported them all the way through, financially and otherwise. We have an obligation to rugby league in NSW to make sure what we consider to be an asset for the benefit of the game is used that way."

As revealed by Fairfax Media last December, much of the consternation – as far as the NSWRL is concerned – comes from the selling of the premises in Phillip Street as the leagues club battled crippling losses because of oppressive poker machine taxes.

It was sold for $15.5 million, chiefly because of an inhibitive 50-year lease on the top four residential floors of the property. NSWRL board member and Roosters chairman Nick Politis says it could've been sold for as much as $60 million.

"It's a shame that the property, because of circumstances, was disposed for such a low price," Politis said. "It would've been worth three to four times more."

Bowden did not return calls.