The Lord Myners Review has called for a radical overhaul of the Premiership's salary cap regulations, recommending no fewer than 66 changes.
Commissioned by PRL to probe existing regulations following the Saracens salary cap breach, resulting in a £5.36m fine and 70-point deduction, the Myners Review welcomed input from 450 responses after welcoming public critiques.
Taking three months to publish, Myners recommendations include:
- More flexibility for disciplinary panels, given capacity to strip clubs of titles as well as suspensions
- Greater transparency
- Greater accountability of the boards of Premiership clubs
- Greater accountability for the players and their agents
- Increased reporting obligations on clubs
- Stronger investigatory powers vested in the salary cap manager function and increased resource to perform this function
- Making the regulations easier for clubs to understand
Darren Childs, chief executive of Premiership Rugby, commented: “Premiership Rugby established an independent review of the salary cap because we want to ensure that it provides a world-leading framework for the future.
“We are immensely grateful to Lord Myners for his thorough and insightful work during an extensive review process.
“We welcome the comprehensive set of recommendations put forward by Lord Myners following the review and we are pleased to publish his report so that everyone has an opportunity to consider his conclusions.
“In the next stage of this process, we will consult carefully with our clubs and other stakeholders as we finalise the new Salary Cap regulations for the long-term benefit of our sport.”
The punishment given to Saracens for breaching the salary cap for three season between 2016 and 2019 was the maximum permissible under current regulations.
Myners' recommendations include the ramping up of sanctions to allow enforced relegation and the return of prize money. But also go further to ‘tie in' players to the salary cap and its threshold.
This extends to player sponsorships, arrangements with clubs to be disclosed to the salary cap manager, and a declaration by players to adhere to the regulations.
Premiership Rugby will now hold a further consultation phase before ratifying any changes to the salary cap.
In order to implement changes proposed, Premiership Rugby need a majority of 10 out of its 13 members clubs to vote to approve.
