There are weeks – and this has been another one – when rugby union finds itself on a perilous tightrope. Over on the far side of the canyon is a potential land of plenty but one false move could have grisly consequences. With the realities of post-coronavirus economics also starting to unfold, the sport needs calm, rational counsel like never before.
Which is why the advice of a 72-year-old Cornishman with little previous connection to the pro game needs heeding. Prior to compiling his perceptive report into the Saracens salary cap affair, Paul Myners was City minister under Gordon Brown’s government. He is also a previous chairman of the Guardian Media Group and the Tate which, if nothing else, indicates an ability to look beyond the narrow horizons of corporate greed.
All that experience – and umpteen recent conversations with all the major players in English rugby – has promoted several clear conclusions. Last month the clubs unanimously signed up to his 52 recommendations to tighten salary cap regulations and prevent a Saracens-type scandal from happening again. Premiership Rugby and its private equity backers, CVC Capital Partners, would do well to listen to the fresh guidance he has to offer.
Top of the wish list is for PRL to get its own house in order as it faces up to the threat of players taking legal or, conceivably, strike action against clubs trying to rush through permanent pay cuts. “There needs to be a review of the make up and the balance of the board of PRL. At the moment it’s essentially the clubs and CVC. The chief executive doesn’t even have a vote.” The addition of three non-executive directors, he feels, would make a huge difference.
“Now is not a bad time to have a look at the governance of the Premiership,” he says. “What is missing from almost every echelon of rugby is the presence of independent voices. We don’t really have one in Premiership Rugby. I think it would lead to better decision-making. Somebody has to say: ‘What’s good for the future of this game that we care passionately about?’ That’s the element that’s currently lacking.”
Accusations this week of certain clubs placing undue pressure on players to re-sign reduced deals and using Covid-19 as an excuse to alter binding contracts also has echoes of the “one rule for us, another for them” attitudes that emerged during the Saracens case. Lord Myners believes a reduced salary cap would have happened regardless, with club rugby currently living beyond its means. “I wasn’t asked to comment on the level of the cap but the numbers in my report begged big questions. Rugby is such a great sport and people love playing and watching it. There’ll be a future, but whether it’s a future that can accommodate 100 Premiership players being paid £300,000 or more a year is more debatable.”
His report also queried the continuation of marquee player allowances – “I just observed they seemed to be pretty inconsistent with the facts as I observed them and the objective of equality of financial competition” – which highlights the contrasting priorities of richer and poorer clubs. “I spent a lot of time with just about every owner. I really thought they were great people. But there’s a need to be realistic. It’s in the players’ interests that clubs are sustainable and not dependent on the unpredictability of whether an owner is willing, at the end of the season, to write another cheque. Employment within the game will be more secure if the business model is one which permits profitability.”
In short, rugby needs to be mature enough to recognise that collaboration is the only way ahead. Without higher revenues, cuts will be inevitable and Myners, while sympathetic towards the players, fears a strike would be calamitous for all. “Common sense would say we need to sit down and have constructive, respectful discussions. It would be foolhardy for the players to feel they’ve been pushed into a situation where they have to strike. If you’re an owner wondering how much longer you want to go on writing annual cheques, nothing’s more likely to tip you over the line than being exposed to industrial action.”
A little more self-awareness would also help. Rugby, in Myners’s eyes, “is a tremendous sport but it hasn’t sold itself very well”. He says the RFU has to modernise its overwhelmingly white council and politely suggests PRL should not have waited two full days before making public this week’s salary cap reduction. “I’m certainly not saying they fell at the Melling Road but my report said that when they made a change in the salary cap they should explain the reasons and the logic. It’s all part of transparency and sharing, and people feeling they are part of the process.”
As for those Premiership clubs seeking alternative loopholes to exploit, Myners compares the revised salary cap regulations to average-speed motorway cameras. “It’s about the spirit and the principles that lie under the cap. What I’ve done is made it more likely that if you do try to play fast and loose then you will be spotted earlier on. I’m going to stick my neck out and say I think compliance with the salary cap will be very high in the foreseeable future.”
Already, too, he has detected a greater acceptance at Saracens of the club’s past indiscretions. “It will always be possible for people to say: ‘You have a great record but of course you got it by cheating.’ I think they realise the futility of that, if that’s where you end up. The people who came to see me from Saracens struck me as saying we need to move on to a new chapter, with a new team. The new chairman of Saracens was very contrite.”
Aside from helping out with the Stadium for Cornwall project, Myners is not actively courting a prominent future role within rugby. His vision for the English club game should, nevertheless, still be pinned to every administrative wall. “What we want is a situation in which we begin each season with a serious belief that there are four, five or six teams that could win. Every match will be closely contested, scores will be close and it will make for exciting spectator participation, exciting television viewing and generate increased revenues. That’s got to be the path to success that rugby should be committing to.”