French professional rugby trembles on its foundations. The current crisis has put the clubs facing major financial difficulties, due to the prolonged absence of income from matches (ticket office, hospitality, partnerships). In total, the figure of 120 million euros of loss is advanced. Faced with this unprecedented crisis, the teams of Top 14 and ProD2 have, like many companies, gone into partial unemployment. A measure that club presidents would like to see extended by the state until the championship resumes in September. Without warranty.
Payroll
“The big problem that we have to solve is to allow clubs to reduce their payroll. If there is no decrease for 2021 and even a reduction for the end of the season, we can go to a real disaster, recently explained in South West the former president of Agen, now vice president of the League, Alain Tingau. There has to be a strong awareness. Otherwise, some clubs will have a headache, others risk going out of business. And to insist: "I am not sure that everyone has measured the gravity of the situation and the potential for damage that this crisis will cause, if the salary costs are not reduced. This can range from 18% to 28% depending on the clubs. In the League too, our budget will be cut by 30%. For their part, the players realized the gravity of the situation and agreed to make efforts.
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“The possible drop in player salaries is part of a global approach to solutions that would allow the various entities to get through the crisis. From the start, the players have taken the measure of the crisis and have made it clear that they will contribute to the efforts and the various measures taken to preserve our ecosystem, "explains Robins Tchale-Watchou, president of the players' union (Provale), at Figaro. However, he specifies that "the players must not be designated as those responsible for this crisis": "The remuneration of the players cannot be the only adjustment variable in this crisis. I rebel against this approach, which is to say that, because we are fortunate enough to earn a good living, we must be more impacted than others. "
Inflation
In recent seasons, there has been a real inflation of salaries in the Top 14. On average, a player earns € 20,000 gross per month, certainly far from the wages received by Ligue 1 footballers, but in ten years, the average salary of a first division rugby player increased 104%. With payrolls that have necessarily exploded - despite the implementation of a “salary cap” (cap which has gone in 5 years from 7.5 million to 11.3 million euros) - and which represents today almost 70% of club budgets. Two explanations for this: the recruitment at gold prices, with contracts of more than one million euros per year, of stars of the oval planet (Dan Carter, Jonny Wilkinson then Aaron Cruden or Handré Pollard) and the setting in place of the status of Jiff (Players from training sectors), which artificially increased the price of French players.
>> READ ALSO - Castres, first club in the Top 14 to sign an agreement to lower wages
The DNACG (National Directorate for Aid and Management Control), the financial gendarme of professional and federal rugby in France, recently estimated that the clubs of Top14 and ProD2 should reduce wages by around 30 % next season to absorb the consequences of the crisis. An agreement on a "maximum" drop in wages of "15% for players" and "20% for sports supervision" for the next season was thus accepted Monday at Castres Olympique.
Player efforts
For their part, several players have declared themselves willing to make efforts. “We professional rugby players are not the most to be pitied, far from it. The whole country is suffering and we are fully aware of this, declared former Midi international Louis Picamoles in Midi Olympique. And that like all French people, there is a lot of impatience to know how it will happen, how are we going to get out of this crisis? I repeat, there is no reluctance to make the financial effort. »Similar positions of Parisians Yoann Maestri and Gaël Fickou or Clermontois Wesley Fofana.
This crisis puts professional rugby facing the flight ahead of its economic model. “We cannot deny that we live beyond our means. It cannot be denied that our system is not virtuous. It's a reality, "says Robins Tchale-Watchou. Pierre-Yves Revol, president of Castres and ex-president of the National Rugby League, advocates a further drop in the" salary cap ". To stop the spike in wages and shelter from further financial shocks. Can rugby backtrack?
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