‘There are some academy players earning £8K’ – RPA’s Christian Day reveals Premiership ‘mess’
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Rugby Players Association player liaison officer Christian Day has labelled the situation Premiership squads are facing as ‘an absolute mess’.
The former Northampton Saints lock has shed light on how players are being affected by wage cuts and the lack of uniformity across the 13 member clubs adding to the hardship.
All clubs bar Exeter Chiefs have announced wage cuts to their playing staff. The majority have imposed 25 per cent reductions on those earning £25,000 or more.
But Day explained that matters for the RPA as a players union had been complicated by clubs taking their own approach, and claimed that for some low-earners a threshold had not been applied.
“All 13 clubs have done this their own way,” Day told BBC Rugby Union Weekly podcast. Some started at the end of March, some are doing it for April. Each club had its own sliding scale as to who got cut what and each club would have a different bottom.
“Most clubs had a £25,000 ceiling on the cuts, but some didn’t, and then you had the complication of the government bringing in the furlough scheme, which added more complexity to it.
“Without a central governance saying ‘this is what is going to happen and why’ it is an absolute mess really.
“Everyone knows what we are in is unprecedented, the clubs are all suffering and the whole nation is suffering, but it’s just a case of trying to find a solution that works for as many people as possible.
“I think the majority of players can understand why a club needs some help, but at either end of the scale – and this is me speaking – you’ve got academy players who don’t earn much money at all, and you have guys retiring at the end of the season who are going to be put in a stressful position.
“There are academy players out there earning minimum wage, there absolutely are – £8,000 a year. For them to take a 25% pay cut, for me, is not fair. Those are the extremes of the situation we are trying to temper a little bit.”
