EXCLUSIVE: The RFU cannot introduce central contracts for England players as they are deemed unaffordable and impractical at Twickenham…with a 36-man England squad expected to cost over £25million a year
The RFU cannot introduce central contracts for players because they are unaffordable
The cost of contracting the England squad would be more than £25m each year
RFU chief Bill Sweeney called central contracts the ‘nuclear option’
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The RFU cannot introduce central contracts for English players as they are considered unaffordable and impractical at Twickenham.
The union chief, Bill Sweeney, referred to the ‘nuclear option’ of central contracts when discussing the fallout from the collapse of Wasps and Worcester last weekend, but with English stars like Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje making around £800,000 a year. years before international appearance fees and winning bonuses, there is no appetite for the RFU to take responsibility for player wages.
Industry insiders have told: Sports post that the cost of centrally contracting a 36-man England squad would be over £25 million a year, and the number of players used by coach Eddie Jones is in reality much higher.
English stars such as Owen Farrell earn around £800,000 a year for international fees
The RFU cannot introduce central contracts for English players as they are unaffordable
That would lead to figures beyond the finances of a union struggling with the impact of the pandemic and facing a challenge to sell tickets to the fall internationals amid the cost of living crisis.
In their latest financial report, published last November, the RFU announced a revenue shortfall of £120m compared to previous forecasts, and an underlying loss in reserves of £21.3m, £30m worse than pre-pandemic forecasts. .
Sweeney has spearheaded a brutal cost-cutting exercise that resulted in 119 job cuts at Twickenham and cuts in championship and grassroots game funding, and Sweeney is also well aware of the optic of handing out lavish contracts to England internationals.
With England players earning between £200,000 and £800,000 a year from their clubs, the base wage alone would cost the RFU between £10million and £14million depending on who got a contract, and a £25,000 match fee would be another extra cost. £6.6 million over the course of the season.
Maro Itoje is another star from England whose earnings make the central contracts too expensive
Winning bonuses are negotiated individually with the Rugby Players’ Association for each competition, but this would be an additional expense running into the millions – the England players made £41,000 each for reaching the 2019 World Cup final, for example.
In addition to cost, there are practical considerations that make the RFU reluctant to investigate central contracts, not least England’s manager Eddie Jones’ tendency to select large numbers of players and rapid staff turnover.
Although Jones is limited to 36 players in each squad, like the fall international party he mentioned on Monday, there is often a high turnover between teams. The Australian has called up 76 players in the past 12 months, although not all of them have played.
The central contract system in cricket has been widely touted as a model for English rugby to follow, but the number of players involved varies widely.
The ECB announced last week that they had awarded 18 central contracts across all three formats of the game over the next 12 months, while a further six players were awarded smaller, incremental contracts, numbers that would barely cover a single matchday squad in rugby.
Eddie Jones has called up 76 players to the England squad in the last 12 months