Two current NRL club officials are facing deregistration from the game and the Sea Eagles' hopes of adding a playmaker to their roster for 2018 are set to be dashed in order for the club to be compliant with next season's $9.4 million salary cap.

Fairfax Media revealed five months ago that Manly were under scrutiny after a long-running probe by the NSW Organised Crime Squad's Strike Force Nuralda discovered evidence suggesting payments to players in breach of NRL rules.

On Monday, the code's latest cap scandal became official when it was announced Manly had been hit with a breach notice by League Central.

"The notice concerns preliminary findings of potential breaches of the salary cap over the last five years," the NRL said in a statement. "Should these preliminary findings be confirmed, proposed sanctions could include a significant fine on the club. The club could also be required to adjust its salary cap for 2018 to recognise commitments made to players that are found to be in breach of the cap.

"In addition to the matters relevant to the club, show cause notices have also been issued to two current club officials, requiring them to demonstrate why their registrations

should not be cancelled." Manly's new chief executive Lyall Gorman said on Monday night the club had issue with some of the findings by the NRL and had asked for an extension of the five-day period in which they had been given to reply to the allegations.

"We were advised of the alleged breach by the NRL this morning and immediately convened our legal team to thoroughly review the breach notice and detailed files given to us by the NRL," Gorman said.

"Based on our legal team's preliminary review, there is disagreement with several of the NRL findings and consistent with our rights under the NRL rules and regulations have commenced a path of legal review and response.

"As we have consistently stated, if there are historical compliance issues, we will work both internally and with the NRL to identify those issues and remedy them.

"There is a significant amount of material to work through, based on the documentation handed to us today and the club will be defending those matters through the appropriate channels. Whilst the normal breach notice protocol is five days to respond, the club will be seeking an extension to ensure we can deliver a robust response to the allegations."

The details of the alleged breaches, and the identities of the two NRL club officials who have been sent show-cause notices, were cloaked in secrecy on Monday.

However, it was believed the scale of the breaches was not in the same ballpark as the systematic rorting of the salary cap that led Parramatta to be stripped of 12 competition points last year. The result is that Manly will not be docked points for next season if they are judged not to be over the cap and would instead receive a "significant fine "if ultimately found to have broken the cap rules.

The major consequence for the Sea Eagles is set to be in the implications cap breaches will have on their ability to field a team capable of winning a premiership next season.

Manly have salary-cap room to play with in their roster for 2018 but should the previous transgressions be loaded on top of their figure for next season their capacity to recruit any more players would almost certainly be lost.

Having had five-eighth Blake Green depart to the New Zealand Warriors and having missed out on the signing of Mitchell Pearce, who left the Sydney Roosters but opted to join Newcastle rather than Manly, the club is short a top-class playmaking partner for halfback Daly Cherry-Evans.

They have been linked with Knights No.7 Trent Hodkinson, a former Sea Eagles halfback, as well as Todd Carney, the former NSW State of Origin five-eighth who is aiming to convince the NRL to give him another chance to play in the competition.

The latest developments, however, are likely to leave Manly with what they've got.