All 13 Premiership Rugby clubs have united to support a significant overhaul of the competition’s salary cap regulations, detailed in a report by Lord Myners CBE.
Proposed changes to the league’s salary cap, as mentioned in the Myners Review, include stricter punishments for breaching the rules such as loss of titles, heavier fines, a return of prize money, and potential suspensions. Moreover players, coaches and directors must also be deemed as accountable for future salary-cap breaches.
After garnering support from Premiership Rugby’s teams, conversations will now move onto the next stage in which the recommendation will be developed into detailed regulation. During this process further consultation with the clubs, Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) will continue to occur.
Darren Childs, Chief Executive of Premiership Rugby, emphasised: “I am immensely grateful to Lord Myners for his thorough, diligent and robust approach to conducting this review.
“It’s a credit to our clubs that they have acted so quickly to support these recommendations and take the Premiership Rugby salary cap into a new era. We want to create the gold standard for delivering sporting integrity, financial viability and competitive balance.
“The next stage is for us to consult with our clubs, RFU and RPA and to enshrine these new regulations for the start of the 2020-21 season, which will be created for the long-term benefit of our sport.”
Other recommendations mentioned in the Myners Review include the introduction of a ‘fit and proper’ test for club owners and imposing sanctions to clubs who do not comply with requests for salary-cap information ‘within a reasonable time frame’. Lord Myners’ has also recommended that the Marquee Rule, which allows two players to be paid above the salary cap, should also be reviewed.
The review of Premiership Rugby’s salary cap is seen as the most ‘comprehensive analysis’ of its system since its introduction 21 year ago. It was put into prominence following Saracens’ breaches last year which resulted in the side being docked 105 points and fined £5.36m. However, Premiership Rugby could not strip them of any silverware won despite the victories occurring during the period of breaches.
