Top 14 loosens salary cap ahead of new season

The Top 14 is set to introduce a slight financial relaxation of its Salary Cap for the 2026/27 season, which gets underway in a few weeks.

The salary ceiling, which limits the total amount a club can devote to player and staff remuneration, will rise from €10.7 million to €11 million. It will then increase by €100,000 per season until it reaches €11.3 million in 2029/30.

This move further widens the financial gap between the French top flight and the Gallagher Premiership. The Premiership’s salary cap sits at £6.4 million (approximately €7.5 million) and will remain unchanged for the 2026/27 campaign, which kicks off on September 25.

English clubs are also bound by a new minimum salary floor of £5.4 million, a measure designed to close the competitive gap between the league’s haves and have-nots, killing off the potential for free riders.

The Top 14’s higher cap, combined with its steady incremental increases, means French clubs will continue to compete hard for English rugby talent, armed with significantly more spending power.

The LNR (Ligue Nationale de Rugby) indicated last season that it wanted to give clubs some breathing room and better reflect the realities of top-level rugby and international selections.

As part of the new regulations, image contracts will fall outside the scope of the Salary Cap calculation. Starting in 2026/27, equipment contracts benefiting players, including those signed with brands shared with the club, will be excluded.

“This change will offer greater flexibility both to clubs in managing the Salary Cap and to players in managing their image,” the LNR announced in February.

This rule change was previously a point of contention for Stade Toulousain and UBB. UBB president Laurent Marti highlighted the issue earlier this year regarding the arrival of Adidas, the equipment supplier for star winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey.

“If Adidas gives Louis more than €100,000 linked to his image as a player in the club, it would fall within the Salary Cap,” Marti explained to Sud Ouest.

The LNR is also offering partial protection for the most exposed clubs. Financial support related to international players will now decrease based on the number of club players included on the French national team’s Premium List, published each December.

The more international players a club has, the more funding it will receive, operating on a tiered cap system: €210,000 for one player, €202,500 for two players, €195,000 for three players, and so on. The maximum is set at €1.575 million for clubs with 14 or more players on this list.

Furthermore, if a club loses many international players from one season to the next, the reduction in its credits will be limited to a maximum of €300,000, instead of the current €200,000.