Quote: Pie Eyed "
OK, we broke it once, but the other "breach" was NOT a breach at all.
We had arrangements in place for several players to defer payment s until the following year (which is a valid and accepted practise in the NRL and was NOT against the rules in ESL).
We were charged - and somehow found guilty of - breaking the "spirit" of the cap, by doing something that simply wasn't legislated for in our league, but was (and remains) valid in many leagues around the world (including the NRL).'"
No you didn't have arrangements in place. You are confusing staggered contract payments (ie £50K in year 1 of contract, £100K in year 2, £150K in year 3) with deferring payments on an already agreed players contract ratified by the RFL (ie a player has a 3 year contract of £100k per year, but you then subsequently only paid that player £50k in year 1, £100k in year 2, £150k in year 3). Now the salary cap rules didn't specificially outlaw this but the RFL were quite correct in saying it breached the spirit of the cap. Conversely, staggered contracts had been prior to and still are used in SL after that incident.
