Money row is turning best league in world into a joke
Remember that song that starts ‘There may be trouble ahead’? Well when it comes to the Premiership and the Rugby Players’ Association (RPA), I don’t think there’s any ‘may’ about it – it looks as though we’re headed for a full-on clash, and there won’t be any winners.
When the pandemic hit, the clubs, in an uncoordinated way, imposed/agreed 25 per cent pay cuts for their players. It was understandable that they did so because, with no revenue coming in, their business model was shot to pieces, and they couldn’t afford to have the same level of expenditure as before. However, it was typical PRL that the conversations took place at a club level rather than collectively, and that’s at the heart of the current problem. In the end the players went along with it – in reality they had no choice – but the way it was handled left a sour taste.
As Damien Hopley, the chief executive of the RPA, told me, “It would have been easier if we had been able to sit down at the start with PRL to understand the situation, and then tried to find a collective buy-in from the owners’ group, the clubs, and the players that said, we’re all in this together. However, we were told it was too late for that as some clubs had already started the process of implementing the cuts. Then, a couple of weeks ago PRL came to our board meeting for what we thought was going to be a collective discussion around the financial landscape of the game, but we quickly found out they were there to request a permanent 25 per cent reduction in salaries. We wrote to them suggesting mediation, but got no reply, and it became clear they were stringing us along while ultimatums were being presented to players at club level, with a June 18 deadline asking them to re-sign, amend, or extend contracts.”
The picture this paints is of a game in almost total disarray, characterised by a lack of trust. The RPA say they heard about the salary cap reduction in the media rather than from PRL, the owners appear to be trying to sideline the RPA and negotiate on an individual basis with players rather than collectively, and PRL are strangely silent – maybe even they don’t know what the owners and clubs are doing!
English rugby’s business model has been unsustainable for a while, and that’s down to two things: owners working independently of each other, and players’ wage inflation. The owners were unrealistic in setting a salary cap that was palpably too high, and then allowing the madness of ‘marquee’ players on top. This has driven a crazy increase in salaries, caused largely by the implied threat that if players don’t get the deal they or their agents are after, they’ll head off to France, or more recently, Japan.
The players and their agents have to take some responsibility for the mess: the clubs’ accounts are in the public domain, and the scale of losses was regularly reported, but that didn’t stop a ridiculous and unaffordable rise in salaries. The bubble was always going to burst and Covid19 has simply brought matters to a head rather more quickly.
Leaving aside all of the shenanigans, there’s a harsh reality to this: costs need to come down for the clubs to be viable businesses, and the biggest single expense line they have is players’ salaries – you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out what has to happen. However, there’s a right and a wrong way to handle these matters, and PRL and the owners appear to have behaved badly in the way they’ve gone about it.
What will fans think of all of this? Millions are going to be out of work, and others will face a drop in their earnings, so sympathy for the highest-paid players is likely to be thin on the ground. However, for every Charles Piutau or Maro Itoje, there are journeymen pro’s who earn a lot less, and up-and-coming academy lads on not that much more than the minimum wage.
At the heart of the issue are the owners and PRL. Many of us have suspected for a while that the PRL management are little more than puppets at the beck and call of a diverse and disunited group of owners. Until those owners start to speak with one voice, and get it into their heads that there is a way to compete aggressively on the pitch, but at the same time co-operate with each other for the greater good of the game, then these troubles will continue. The Myners Report has given Premiership rugby a great opportunity to press the reset button and get fit for the future, but like many I’m sceptical about whether the clubs’ owners will be willing to wholeheartedly adopt all of its recommendations.
Heads need to be banged together, and a positive way forward found, because the best league in world rugby is currently looking like a total joke.