Premiership Rugby today confirmed that the Salary Cap for Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs will rise to £5 million from the start of the 2014-15 season.
On top of that, each club will be allowed to have a marquee player who will be excluded from the cap.
The new cap will be broken down as £4.76m for the main squad and £240,000 of Academy credits while each club will have a £400,000 pot to bring new players in case of long term injury.
The £500,000 increased (currently £4.26m) has been helped by the new broadcasting right the Premiership signed with BT last summer.
“The Premiership Rugby clubs have approved this increase following the financial boost given by the new contract with BT Sport and the renewal of the competition’s title sponsorship, with Aviva,” said Premiership Rugby Chief Executive Mark McCafferty.
“This reflects the policy agreed by the Clubs in 2011 to align the Salary Cap to the financial distributions Premiership Rugby makes to the clubs.”
“The objective of the Salary Cap is to control inflationary pressures on clubs’ costs, and to provide a level playing field for clubs to ensure a competitive Aviva Premiership Rugby competition.
“These objectives are borne out in the financial success the league is now seeing with more clubs breaking even, and a healthy turnover of teams at the top of the league with three different winners in as many years. “