Northampton Saints: Robson in call for cap boost
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SAINTS chief executive Alan Robson says clubs that provide England players should be compensated above the salary cap.
Northampton are set to lose eight players to England during the Six Nations, the most any one club is providing the national side. Yet they will have to play four Premiership games during the Six Nations without their top players, and Robson feels that is unfair
This season clubs were allowed to spend £30,000 above the £4m salary cap for each player on World Cup duty, but Robson would like to see something like that in place every season when there are still Six Nations and Autumn internationals going on.
Robson said: “I would like to see the situation where clubs like Northampton, providing so many England players, are able to spend extra money into their squad for players that go missing for large parts of the season.”
The salary cap has again become a topic of debate following the Premiership’s clubs poor showing in the Heineken Cup, with just Saracens making it through to the knockout stages. Saints joined Bath, Leicester, London Irish, Gloucester and Harlequins who failed to reach the quarter-finals.
It prompted Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill to complain about the handicap of a salary cap compared to the Top14, whose loosely imposed cap stands at £7m, while the RaboDirect Pro 12 teams don’t have one.
And Robson feels it is becoming increasingly difficult to compete in Europe.
“The salary cap is a long running thorny issue,” said Robson. “There are two issues; it is there to protect the clubs and it means that we are all spending somewhere in the same order of the same finances, so there will be some semblance of parity on the pitch, without one or two clubs absolutely running away with it.
“There will always be a bottom and a top club obviously. But it stops the ridiculous soccer mentality where players are paid ludircously high wages and the clubs can’t afford it. So this gives the clubs the chance to find a break-even position.
“The problem in creating as much balance as you sensibly can without controlling too much, is that if you pitch that salary cap at a lower level to elsewhere.
“And when you come up against those competitions involving those other clubs, like the Heineken Cup, it means you are paying an awful lot less and it is likely you won’t be as competitive.
“I do think the salary cap is causing an issue in Europe.”
Robson added: “The strength and sustainability of our domestic league is paramount because it is the mean and gravy of the whole season.
“But just as we want England to be a winning side so internationally we want our sides at the top of the European rankings and it does mean we have got to be able to compete, yet it is becoming more and more difficult.”
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Comments
There are 2 comments to this article
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bobby boy
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:13 PMMr Robson, Just tell me How keeps to this socall salary cap ??, Not Saracens ???. the Big spendders of Rugby. The salary caps just a Joke.
steve rodhouse
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 10:55 AMMr Robson out of touch as usual. This would ultimately cost the Saints and then the fans more of their hard earned cash. Surely better to play the Internationals during the LV Cup. Too simple obviously as he knows attendances for these games would almost certainly fall. Still the best solution.
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