“£300k is the new £200k” After AP Cap Increase
The Daily Mail has reported that a wages war has been started in the Aviva Premiership: Clubs fear Manu Tuilagi’s high-stakes contract negotiations following the salary cap hike will spark a wages war, with an elite group of international stars creaming off clubs’ budgets while other earnings flat-line.
Premier Rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty outlined new measures in October — with the salary cap set to increase by £1.5million over the next two seasons — aimed at preventing English clubs losing out to richer French and Japanese outfits.
With the average Premiership player salary still below £100,000, the news that England centre Tuilagi has finally agreed to stay at Leicester following an ‘obscene’ offer from Worcester — worth more than £1.5m over three years — has drawn the curtain on one of the richest deals in professional rugby union history.
Tuilagi, whose deal to stay at Leicester is understood to be worth more than £400,000 a year, can still lay claim to being among the Premiership’s biggest ever earners, after Sam Burgess’s brief spell at Bath netted him more than £600,000 during a 10-month stay.
One player’s agent told the Mail on Sunday this week: “The market has exploded since the salary cap announcement. When it comes to salaries, £300,000 is the new £200,000. Every out-of-contract player is aware of the extra allowance and the top boys are inevitably going to push their luck.”
With the recent World Cup and additional international fixtures crowbarred into an already packed schedule, Premiership directors want to use some of the extra funding to bolster their squads with additional players so that they can rest overstretched top stars.
But Wasps director of rugby Dai Young, who is keen to bring in Wales and British Lions star Leigh Halfpenny and retain out-of-contract James Haskell following heavy investment from businessman Derek Richardson, said: “When the salary cap goes up it always seems to swell the market. The same players want more money. The reality, which we really have to fight against, is that the salary cap has gone up for the last few years but squad sizes have stayed the same so more money is going to the same players.
“The important thing for us now is to resist that. You’ve got to pay players what they’re worth, that’s obvious. But it’s important to have the right numbers in the squad and make sure you don’t overpay a small number of stars.”
The increase in the cap from next season will take the richest clubs’ potential wage bill close to £10m with provision for two marquee players outside the cap. And there is additional funding: homegrown players credits, set to rise to £600,000 over the next two seasons; a new England senior player allowance of up to £80,000 per person to cover absence through international duty on Premiership weekends; and a £400,000 fund to cover long-term injuries.
The Mail also published the table below suggesting who the Premiership’s top earners may be next season (see above).
Read the full article here…..
