Should the Super League salary cap be scrapped?

IT’S been the question that has dominated rugby league in the UK since the summer game began – should the Super League salary cap be scrapped?

In 1996, Super League was created after the RFL was approached by Rupert Murdoch, who was in charge of broadcasting company BSkyB.

A deal was signed that ushered in a new game – and a salary cap was brought in to make Super League ‘a level playing field.’

The salary cap was also a way of stopping those clubs with greater financial resources dominating the competition as well as preventing clubs spending beyond their means.

Whilst in theory the concept works – who doesn’t want to see glory spread amongst different clubs? – the salary cap has shown to fail in its first objective.

There is no level playing field and hasn’t been for 27 years; only four clubs have ever won the Super League Grand Final – Bradford Bulls, Leeds Rhinos, St Helens and Wigan Warriors – whilst only nine have ever made it to Old Trafford.

The idea that the salary cap produces parity has never been true, with the current cap of £2.1 million a far cry away from the £6.75 million agreement introduced in the NRL.

Of course, there are dispensations in place that allows Super League clubs to spend more. For example, each club can have two marquee players, where only £150,000 of their value counts towards the cap (or £75,000 if club trained).

As well as the marquee player rule, each club is also given up to £100,000 of dispensation for producing Super League quality players.

That being said, some Super League clubs do not even the salary cap ceiling – is rugby league punishing itself by not allowing those with the spending power to keep the country’s best talent in Super League rather than seeing this quality being drip-fed abroad?

The likes of Dom Young, John Bateman and now Kai Pearce-Paul and Will Pryce have signed deals in the NRL with Super League unable to compete financially as well as culturally.

Critics of scrapping the salary cap – or at least raising it – will look towards rugby union and the inflated cap over there which has led to the demise of Worcester and Wasps, but rugby league in the UK is slowly seeing its best talents move to Australia.

The new shareholders, IMG, need to do something drastic to stop this exodus. Is it time for the salary cap to go?