There have been a number of heated discussion over the past couple of weeks between the WRU and regions
Every Welsh-qualified player in Wales will be centrally contracted going forward(Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd)
The Welsh Rugby Union are planning to centrally contract every Welsh-qualified player in Wales as part of a groundbreaking proposal put forward.
Last month the WRU proposed reducing the number of professional sides from four to three, with one based in Cardiff, one in the east and one in the west. The decision to axe one club has made the headlines, but of perhaps even graver concern to the professional clubs is the level of control the WRU are demanding.
There have been a number of heated discussion over the past couple of weeks as the WRU and its current four professional clubs – Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets – try to find a way forward.
But the level of control has been a big sticking point and in a meeting of the Professional Rugby Board this week, the WRU outlined its plan to centrally contract every Welsh-qualified player.
As part of the proposed 10-year deal the WRU have put forward the three licences would cost in the region of £1m each. The licence would only last for 10 years.
WalesOnline understands the funding directors will be required to put in at least £1m a year as part of a fixed licence fee.
The funding directors will also be expected to pay back the Covid loan which now totals in the region of £7m per club, with two sides deciding against taking out the full loan at the time.
This means the benefactors will need to stump up between £1m-£1.5m a season per club depending on the cost of the loan taken out.
Before this latest saga the WRU had decided to take the Covid loan onto its own balance sheet and pay it back on behalf of the four professional clubs but WalesOnline understands this has changed.
From year six of the licence fee, the debt will have been paid off but there will then be a variable licence fee which is calculated as 50% of net surplus.
In other words 50% of profits the three clubs make from the commercial side of their business will have to go to the WRU.
Under the new proposal the WRU wants to control all aspects of rugby from appointing the staff to what players are contracted at each team, leaving the benefactors in control of the commercial arm of the business.
A number of meetings are scheduled to go ahead over the next few weeks as Welsh rugby’s powerbrokers desperately try to find a way forward for the professional game.
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