Browne repeats stark warning: ‘If we’ve to cut wages, we’ve to cut wages’

IRFU chief executive Philip Browne has doubled down on his stark warning for Irish rugby, if the sport is not given the go-ahead to resume in the coming months.

The IRFU are currently working off a return-to-play date of the weekend of August 22 with a series of PRO14 matches slated to take place.

It has already been confirmed that the union faces a loss of €15-20m if the Six Nations and November internationals are not played this year.

Salary deferrals have been in place since Covid-19 brought rugby to a standstill and Browne has now admitted that pay cuts are inevitable if rugby faces further disruptions this year.

“With the agreement of the players we have a salary deferral scheme in place, so we’re in the second month of that,” Browne told Off The Ball’s ‘State of the Union’ podcast.

Liabilities

“We cannot simply build up a set of deferred salary liabilities, potentially in the knowledge that we’re not going to be able to pay them. I don’t see that that’s a longterm solution.

“At the time when the crisis first hit in March, everyone thought ‘Well, we’ll be back training in June and we’ll be playing out the end of the season in July and August’. That’s all changed now.

“I think the salary deferral scheme is something certainly we need to be looking at.

“Ultimately if we have to cut wages, we have to cut wages, if that’s what’s going to help us get to the other end in one piece, and unpalatable as it is, we wouldn’t be the only organisation in the country who is having to face up to these issues.”