your rpa
Ifthe
CapFits…
With somany column
inches beingdedicated
to theSalaryCap
earlier this year, RPA
GroupCEODAMIAN
HOPLEY, examines
the rights andwrongs
of the current Salary
Cap in theAviva
Premiership.
Asthe
PlayersUnion,
ourprimary
role isto
protectand
promotethe
interests
ofour
members.
The end of the 2014/15 seasonwas tarnished by the
revelations in the Times newspaper regarding potential
Salary Cap breacheswithin theAviva Premiership.
The very heated public debate that followed drew a
number of comments from players, administrators, fans
and themedia calling for thematter to be dealt with
appropriately. I was interviewed on several occasions
about the RPA stance on the Salary Cap and, with the
input from the Players’ Board, I confirmed the RPA (and
therefore themembers that we represent) collective
position on theCap, which I have outlined below.
BACKGROUND
Since the Salary Capwas introduced in the Premiership
in 1999, the Players’ Association (and therefore the
players) have recognised the validity and purpose of the
Cap. The key objectives of the Salary Cap are, primarily,
to create financial viability for the clubs and also create
an artificial playing environment wheremost, if not all
teams in the Premiership, can beat any other team on
the day. Clearly this is not the casewhen some clubs
have significantly less central revenue (aswas the case
with LondonWelsh last season), but the premise is that
all can beat all on any given day.
TheCap is policedboth internally (by PRL) and
externally (through auditors PWC) and there is
significant rigour surrounding the declarations by each
club to the validity of their payment information. Players
are routinely interviewed by the Salary CapManager,
who is employed by theClubs tomanage all elements
of theCapwhich is therefore regarded as central to the
integrity of the game.
RUMOURS
To that end, when rumours started to emanate about
the potential cover up of allegedbreach (es) inMay
of this year, the issue rapidly escalatedwithin the
media. At the time I went on record to say that any
proven breaches of theCap needed to be exposed and
appropriately punished. All the players I have spoken to
are eagerly awaiting the outcome and conclusion of any
potential breaches, as anywrongdoingwill impact on
every single stakeholder in the Premiership. Indeed, any
potential breaches of the collectiveCap go to the very
heart of the integrity of the competition and can have
a high impact on the sport – just seewhat damagewas
done to theNRLwhen theMelbourne Storm scandal
was uncovered back in 2010.
SUMMARY
As the Players Union, our primary role is to protect
and promote the interests of ourmembers. This also
means that wewant our players to earn asmuch as
they possibly can throughout (hopefully) long and
successful careers. The reality of any Salary Cap is that it
canbe reasoned to be a restraint on player wages. Any
challenge on theCapwould be a lengthy and costly
process and our belief is that that investment is better
spent on investing in PlayerWelfare andDevelopment
Programmeswhich are in the interests of the broader
membership.Whilst getting rid of theCapmay push
up playerswages in the short term at some clubs, my
absolute conviction is that, if the RPAwere to challenge
theCap and have it abolished, aminimum of four of
theAviva Premiership clubswould be out of business by
the end of this coming season andmass redundancies
would ensue.
CONCLUSION
In the interests of keeping asmany of ourmembers
as employed as possible, the RPA Players’ Board have
formally agreed to support theCap, but have sought
enhancements to thewelfare provisions for all members
in the revised StandardContract in return for that
unequivocal support.
As the popularity and profile of the game continues
to risewith a home RugbyWorldCup later this year, the
Salary Capwill continue to be linked to those growing
central Broadcast & Sponsorship revenues.With a
robust Cap in place, allied to renewed commitment
from existing and new club investors then the game
in England is in rude health and the Salary Cap plays a
significant part in delivering that health check, as long as
everyone is, hand on heart, playing to the same rules…
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