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Leagues and Governing Bodies

NRL Clubs Agree To New Salary Cap, But Another Funding Fight Looms

A "ceasefire" appears to have been brokered between National Rugby League clubs over the salary cap for next year so that a "united front can be presented to the next round of talks with the players’ union," according to Margie McDonald of THE AUSTRALIAN. Clubs had "splintered" into two groups, with one advocating a higher salary cap and the other opting for a "more modest amount." The group arguing for a smaller cap wanted to ensure its NRL grants over the next five years were not "eaten up by player payments." However, now that "hurdle has been cleared it seems a bigger fight is brewing over funds that were due to be paid to clubs later this year." The NRL in April gave an initial figure of A$8.3M ($6.2M) for the base salary cap. When other entitlements for players were added in, the figure "climbed" to A$8.84M ($6.6M). But that "still left a gap" between what the Rugby League Players Association was proposing in its response two weeks ago, with a salary cap base of A$9.1M ($6.8M). The RLPA's final figure would be close to $10M ($7.4M) with "everything included." NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said that the NRL and RLPA agreed to "negotiate privately rather than giving detailed updates on the proposals being discussed." The "bigger stoush brewing" is not with players, but between the NRL and clubs over the release of funds from the A$1.8B broadcasting deals signed with Nine Network and Fox Sports in Nov. '15 for the '18-22 seasons (THE AUSTRALIAN, 5/18).

UNDER ATTACK: In Sydney, Pengilly, Chammas & Proszenko reported furious NRL clubs are "set to wage a new attack" on Australian Rugby League Commission Chair John Grant's position as rugby league's top administrator after the NRL warned it was not "in a position to pay the promised" A$13M ($9.7M) in club grants next year. The NRL -- which is understood to have a A$60M ($44.6M) "black hole" in its budget forecasts -- pledged to "drip feed the money back to clubs" with a A$2.5M ($1.9M) payment to each in the final year of a six-year plan. The move "riled several club powerbrokers." Grant was absent from the meeting at Moore Park, "despite personally inviting" the chairs himself. It will "only expedite fresh attacks" on his leadership, as "jilted officials turn up the heat" on the ARLC chair (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 5/17).

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