LOL

RFL has some answering to regarding thisWhen formally charged, Wigan’s first formal response to the charges was to admit them as breaches caused by administrative error and disruptive mitigating circumstances.

At no stage did Wigan respond to the charges with a not-guilty response.

Wigan were not offered an Agreed Decision by the RFL, as expected in the rules, before the Tribunal was arranged. Had this been offered earlier in the process, as provided for in the RFL Rules & Regulations, Wigan would have had the opportunity to research precedents and would almost certainly have accepted an Agreed Decision involving no points deduction, as offered at the last minute at the door of the Tribunal but with a substantial fine and costs.

The RFL legal team at the Tribunal represented the breaches as “serious” on a scale from “minor” to “serious” to “exceptional” in requesting a serious penalty from the Tribunal and cited Wigan’s breaches in 2004 (2 points deduction) and 2005 (4 points deduction) as relevant to consider.
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Seems more like an oversight or a misunderstanding of the legislation rather than anything malicious or 'cheating' to me.
Probably similar to what happened to Bradford when they were found to have breached the cap, and that was actually in a year where Bradford won the GF.

You have to laugh at the timing of it though. The RFL statement says that the decision was reached last Thursday. So they've waited until now, the eve of the new season kicking off, to announce it

The salary cap should be increased to £3m

Before this gets much more sanctimonious these kinds of error are not uncomon and can hardly be seen as a deliberate attempt to cheat. The club statement is quite clear on what went wrong and it looks like an appeal would have a good chance of sucess in that the RFL has breached its own opperating proceedures. A legal challenge can be expected if not only because others have been treated differently for the same types of error. One worry is that this might become the standard and then many clubs could be worried.

Although Wigan have form in breeching the Salary Cap, this is hardly crime of the century.
It's more surprising that they didn't manage to "bury" the overspend somewhere in their accounts.

£14,700 on a salary cop of £1.9 million, less than 1%

The time when they should have been properly dealt with has long since gone and they'll probably appeal (again) and end up getting 2 points start, citing some obscure rule that nobody else knew about.

Its described as a technical breach rather than an attempt to cheat, 2 points still seems lenient, but it is different than the Salford situation which was an attempt to get round the cap full stop and was a far bigger figure. i would like to think they now are scrutinized more for the next couple of years and a much harsher punishment if it happens again. the fine should have been at least as much as they over spent, and 2 points the following season is hardly a deterrent. if it was 2 points last year fair enough but the following season 6 seems more appropriate and a bigger deterrent.

The 2 points will be handed back once Wigan have appealed. This is the RFL we are talking about after all.

So you think a 2 point deduction is appropriate for a less than 1% technical breach (one that didnt go on players salaries etc)?

Well said....can't stand cheats !

Is it just me that finds it strange that "agents fees and a flight allowance" are considered part of the salary cap?

Yes, although I'd expect that whoever is in charge if the financial details at Wigan would know this.

Dont buy Wigans excuses and reasons, if you are over you are over, it shouldn't how much and a percentage it is, plus they say they didn't get any advantage as they lost all there games in that period, again this is ittelvent to the situtaion.

Any salary cap breach should come with a points deduction, otherwise there is no punishment, a £2500 is loose change to Wigan.

once a cheat....

Guess this relates to the Burgess and Leuluai signings, they must have flown business class! Put them in coach next time!

I don't know why people still bother with the salary cap, here at Warrington we've opted out for quite a few years now.