Sale issue statement on permanent salary cuts at the Premiership club
Sale Sharks have become the first Gallagher Premiership club to announce that the temporary 25 per cent pay cut agreed last March when the coronavirus outbreak first forced the suspension of the 2019/20 season has been made permanent.
Top-flight clubs voted last week to reduce the league’s salary cap by £1.4million from the 2021/22 season onwards and to help Sharks prepare for this reduction, permanent cuts to salaries have now been agreed with a squad that includes recent South African World Cup winners Faf de Klerk and Lood de Jager along with England World Cup finalist Tom Curry.
The revelation comes just five days after the Rugby Players’ Association slammed clubs in England for the manner in which they were trying to force players from across the league to agree to permanent salary cuts.
An RPA statement on June 12 read: “It is a sad day in the history of rugby that the game finds itself in this position. PRL and the clubs have decided to publicly criticise the RPA and, by doing so, personally attack players and their representatives.
“Throughout this crisis, both the RPA and players have been open to a collaborative and positive solution to address the long-term financial viability of the game.”
No love lost between the RPA and the Premiership clubs as heated row takes turn for worse https://t.co/93lj8jt8oY
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 12, 2020
With the Premiership salary cap reductions stating that in order to manage the transition only 75 per cent of “existing contracts” signed before June 18 this year would count towards the cap for future seasons, Sale have now reached agreement with their squad about salaries in the seasons ahead.
A statement issued on Wednesday read: “The club would like to show its full support of the unanimous decision by all 13 clubs to reduce the salary cap ahead of the 2021/22 season.
“This decision has been reached due to the financial impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and Sale Sharks is committed to a collaborative approach, alongside the other stakeholders of Premiership Rugby, to ensure the long-term future and financial sustainability of professional rugby in England.
“The repercussions on the professional game could be catastrophic if a number of Premiership Rugby clubs can no longer operate.
“In order to navigate through these challenging times, Sale Sharks have had to have some difficult discussions to ensure the future of the club for its supporters, players and staff and we are very pleased to say that all of our players and staff share the club’s vision and ambition of a sustainable future.
“We are delighted to announce that the club has reached agreement with every single player regarding amended terms to their contracts to facilitate this and that our squad will remain together for the next three or four years.
“The club would also like to thank all our non-playing team including commercial, coaching and medical staff, as they also have agreed pay cuts. Every single person at Sale Sharks has accepted a reduction and is contributing to getting Sale Sharks through these difficult times.
“We look forward to returning to action and completing the 2019/20 Gallagher Premiership season as soon as it is safe to do so.”
“Some clubs are trying to entice or crowbar players into signing longer contracts with 25% of their salary not counting in next season’s cap”
– Damian Hopley of @theRPA gives @chrisjonespress the latest update in messy English Premiership row??? https://t.co/PXEhjP0DbN
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 10, 2020
Speaking in a RugbyToday interview on BT Sport last month when the 25 per cent cut was temporary, Sale boss Steve Diamond said: “The masses at Sale all agreed immediately that this was the thing for the club. Nobody asked what are other clubs doing. We said: ‘This is our club, this is how we run it’.
“You have got to be careful what you wish for some of the time. In these sporting and world days of austerity, I would be tempted to keep my head down, work hard, support the club I work for and if you’re a good player, at your next negotiation you can get some more money.”
Comments on RugbyPass
first no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to comments