Quote: Wigan28/Leeds18 Andy "As I pointed out on page 8 their "original" salary cap value falls off, and there is also mention of making sure payments do not take a club over their cap limit.
If this didn't happen there is the possibility of clubs spending considerably more than the cap on players over the course of a season if they decided to get rid of some and replace them, which will all know would be against the "spirit" of the cap.'"
The salary cap is calculated live at any one time. A club is in breach of the salary cap if its Aggregate First Tier Liability "at any time" exceeds £1,650,000 (para 3.1.1).
"The Aggregate First Tier Liability is calculated by adding together the respective Salary Cap Values of the club's First Tier Players
at any given time" (emphasis added).
First Tier Players are the 25 highest Salary Cap Value players "at the time in question".
If a player is not part of the club's First (or second) Tier Players then any payment made to them has no effect on the club's salary cap.
The reference to making sure payments do not take them over the cap limit is a seperate paragraph to the sub-paragraph relating to termination payments and relates to transactions generally including teh signatures of new players who would become First Tier Players.
You will see that paragraph 6.1 refers the reader to Appendix 2 as examples of how a transaction affects a club's salary cap. At A4 of that Appendix it clarifies that following a termination payment:
"If the departing Player was a First Tier Player, then the Player with the next highest Salary Cap Value outside of the Club’s First Tier Players will automatically become a First Tier Player for the purposes of the Regulations"
As stated above the clubs Salary Cap expenditure is measured against the twenty five First Tier Player at any given time of which the terminated player has been replaced and hence any payments made to him, including termination payments, will not be calculated as part of a club's expenditure against the salary cap.
The key is who are a club's First Tier Players (ignoring second tier players for teh prupose of this debate). Once a player is not part of that Tier, and Annex 2 A4 explains that they are replaced by next highest paid player, then they do not count on the cap.
Not the best or easiest document to follow but I guess that is why Wigan were able to employ expensive lawyers to argue their case about which penalty should have applied to them and thus avoid the potential 12 point deduction that would have seen them relegated. You would have hoped that the RFL would have learnt their lesson then but it appears not.
If you do not agree with any of the above please point out my errors.
