Nick Cain: OK, relax the cap but make it fair for ALL

There is a cartel-like stench attached to the double standards employed in the English Premiership, and it intensified just before Christmas when it emerged that Saracens and Bath are being investigated for alleged breaches of the salary cap by the league’s umbrella organisation, PRL.
It is probably no coincidence that news of the PRL investigation was leaked at a time when Saracens and Bath had been agitating for an increase in the £5.5m salary cap, with Saracens leading the insurrection by suggesting openly that the financial control mechanism is restraint of trade, and therefore illegal.
The long and short of it is that Saracens and Bath want to see an unrestricted market. They want the cap either abolished or increased significantly in order to maximise on their privileged position as the two wealthiest clubs in the English game. Their argument is that they want to be able to compete with the big-spending French clubs like Toulouse, Toulon and Racing Metro for crowd-pulling stars such as All Black fly-half Dan Carter, who has just joined Racing on a £1m yearly contract.
The Saracens chief executive Edward Griffiths believes that the salary cap should be scrapped because it prohibits the Premiership from realising its full potential: “The salary cap has served its purpose. It would be a pity if the world’s top players light up the World Cup on English soil and then leave to play club rugby in France. If the salary cap is left to forbid the required investment, it will kill any hope of growth.”
This contrasts with the view of the majority of the clubs in the elite England league who want to see it stay where it is, or increase by only a nominal amount.
Clubs like Northampton, Leicester, Gloucester, Harlequins, Wasps, Exeter, Sale Sharks, Newcastle and London Irish are scared that any hike in the cap will allow the mega-rich owners behind Saracens, Nigel Wray and the De Beers billionaire Johann Rupert, and their Bath counterpart, Bruce Craig, to corner the transfer market in stars like Carter.
Despite frequently bemoaning that he does not have the cash to compete against the star-stacked French clubs in European competition, the Leicester director of rugby, Richard Cockerill, summed up the majority view last weekend.
“The cap is there for a reason. It keeps the league competitive. Clubs like ourselves, Gloucester and Northampton pay our own bills and only spend what we can afford to. There is no point having two or three sides who can spend £15 million but the rest can only spend £5-6 million, or whatever, because that would make the league uneven.”
In my view there is nothing wrong, in principle, with a sporting co-operative setting rules which are aimed at ensuring the financial viability of its member clubs, as well as ensuring that the standard of the league is at all times competitive. However, if some clubs (like Saracens and Bath) are better endowed financially than others through good fortune or hard work then there should be some flexibility – say, to the tune of £1.5 million above the standard rate – in recognition of that.
That leeway should be applied to every club in the league, but other than that the only discrepancy in funding should be EQP payments based on how many England qualified players a club have. Instead, what we have is an indefensible double-standard where the majority of the clubs plead that they want to keep the league competitive through an equal salary cap when, at the same time, they collude to keep any promoted club non-competitive by refusing them equal funding.
While PRL said in an official statement that, “the salary cap provides a level playing-field for all clubs, (and) ensures a competitive Aviva Premiership Rugby Competition”, it appeared oblivious to the contradiction that you cannot promote a level playing-field in one area of funding while having another with a slope like the foothills of the Himalayas.
This season the Premiership’s promoted side, London Welsh, have been forced to operate with a crippling funding handicap, receiving just £1.5 million p.a. from PRL, whereas the majority of clubs receive £4 million.
This has contributed to them being unable to assemble a strong enough squad to make the step-up to the top league, and their disastrous season reached a nadir last weekend in a 78-7 annihilation by Saracens at Allianz Park.
Although the Welsh Exiles filled some of the defensive holes on Boxing Day in their 24-9 defeat at London Irish, it was their 11th loss out of 11 since they were promoted.
PRL are constantly banging the drum about how competitive the Premiership is, but, with half the season played and the promoted side reduced to a whipping boy, their boast does not stand even cursory scrutiny.
As for the investigations into salary cap breaches by Saracens and Bath – which could carry swingeing penalties if proved – don’t hold your breath. Cartels don’t usually carve themselves up.
*This article was first published in The Rugby Paper on December 29.