Aviva Premiership Introduces New Salary Cap Regulations

A new salary cap monitoring and investigation system has been introduced for all Aviva Premiership clubs. The changes are intended to bring greater transparency to the league. 

Premiership Rugby can now undertake an Investigatory Audit, in addidition to the existing annual salary cap audit, to access the relevant records of any club suspected of breaching the regulations.

Any club that does breach the regulations could face both a points deduction and a fine. Any breach and the sanction imposed will also be made public. The disciplinary procedure will be run by Sport Resolutions UK, who will appoint an independent panel of legal experts and oversee any appeal procedure.

Premiership Rugby Chief Executive, Mark McCafferty, said: “As a collective, Premiership Rugby and its clubs led the way in England when in 1999 they introduced their Salary Cap in order to ensure the continuing financial viability of all clubs.

Their objective was to control inflationary pressures on clubs’ costs, and to provide a level playing field for clubs to ensure a competitive Aviva Premiership Rugby competition.

“These objectives are borne out in the financial success the league is now seeing, with a healthy turnover of teams at the top of the league. We have also had three different winners of the Aviva Premiership Rugby competition in as many years, in the most competitive league in world rugby (highest number of games finishing in less than one score compared to any other rugby competition in the world).”

Phil Winstanley, Rugby Director at Premiership Rugby, added: “It was inevitable that as the game develops we would conduct a review of the Salary Cap.

“Salary Caps exist in many commercially successful sports around the world. The most obvious examples are the NFL and NHL in the USA, and the NRL and AFL in Australia.

“The introduction in football of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play and the Premier League clubs’ new financial regulations, together with Salary Caps in Rugby League, County Cricket, and in rugby union with France’s Top 14 and the Welsh Regions, all demonstrating how European sport has recently grasped the importance of controlling costs and long-term financial sustainability.”

Premiership Rugby has also set up an email address and hotline phone number for anyone wanting to present information. Anyone can now email salarycap@premiershiprugby.com or call 07583 826343.