SRU promises crackdown on amateur clubs paying players

THE SRU is determined to crack down on any of Scotland’s amateur clubs making payments to players. At Saturday’s AGM, Scottish Rugby chief executive Mark Dodson insisted he would call in HMRC if he found out payments were still being made to players in the amateur league and not declared. ‘I’m not going to run around with a group of accountants playing cops and robbers with these teams,’ said Dodson. ‘If we hear and believe an amateur club is paying players, we will talk to HMRC. They will enforce this, not us.’

Sportsmail has been told of one player who was, in the past, given a £17,000 salary to move from one Scottish amateur club to another. Payments of more than £100 per league game on top of legitimate expenses is not uncommon. Dodson said the initiative to outlaw paying amateurs had come from the majority of clubs themselves. They had been frustrated at losing their best players to richer sides in the same league and had turned to the governing body to clamp down on the practice. ‘You had a situation when amateur clubs were paying players because other clubs were,’ said Dodson. ‘They didn’t want to but knew they had to otherwise they’d lose their top men, so felt compelled to do it. ‘We want to draw a line under the thing. There will be a professional level and semi-pro league set-up in two years’ time called the Super Six. Then there will be the amateur system and we will report clubs at that level to the tax authorities if they pay players. ‘While we always recognise there are movements for legitimate reasons, we will not subsidise an internal market from Scottish Rugby funds. There will be no payments of players in the new national leagues and championship. There will only be legitimate expenses that will have to fall within the HMRC guidelines.’