“Publish Player Pay” says OShea

The Daily Mail has reported that Conor O’Shea has called for Premier Rugby to open its books and follow the NFL by publishing players’ salaries amid anger at the decision to delay a salary cap investigation.

The Aviva Premiership’s umbrella organisation was last week reported to have postponed an investigation into alleged breaches of the cap by Saracens and Bath to avoid negative publicity if the clubs were found guilty and punishments meted out.

There were fears Saracens could carry out a threat to challenge the legality of the salary cap under European trade law.

Harlequins director of rugby Conor O’Shea has called for Premier Rugby to open its books.

The decision to postpone the investigation has angered those who believe any alleged wrongdoing should be brought into the public domain and Harlequins director of rugby O’Shea believes copying American Football’s financial model – where every player’s salary is published – could be the only way to avoid future breaches.

“The salary cap is a massively important part of the game in England in terms of keeping it sustainable and keeping the league,” O’Shea said.

“You look and learn from other sports and the most professional sport in the world is potentially American Football. It is unbelievably well regulated in terms that it is unbelievably commercialised but in terms of the regulation of how it manages its players. It’s well regulated in terms of the cap but it doesn’t affect the finances and the competition.

“It might cause some issues in the dressing room (publishing salaries) but it can be done. If I sit around a table of 12 people and agree things then I expect them to be abided by. My players deserve it, our supporters deserve it. It could be proved that the rumour is only rumour and if that is the case then so be it. But let us know the playing field.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to sit around with my kids and play Monopoly and they have all the big houses and I play with nothing it would make it very difficult. They would win every time.”