Baxter makes his feelings clear in this article from the Telegraph:
Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter dismissed the idea that was ever any grey area in the salary cap rules providing clubs were intent on following the spirit of the regulations.
On Tuesday, Leicester Tigers confirmed that they were under investigation, led by Premiership Rugby’s salary cap manager Andrew Rogers, for possibly historic breaches of the salary cap. In 2020, Saracens were hit with a 105 point deduction, which caused them to be relegated to the Championship, and a £5.36 million fine for breaching the salary cap over four seasons. Last year, Lord Myners’ report into Premiership Rugby’s salary cap beefed up the sanctions, which could include possible stripping of titles and automatic relegation.
Even though Leicester’s alleged breaches predate Lord Myners’ report, they will still face punishment under the current regulations. Like Saracens, the investigation into Leicester largely centres on image right payments that many insiders believed constituted a ‘grey’ area for boosting players’ salaries with top-up payments.
Baxter, however, insists there is only ambiguity if you purposefully look to push the boundaries. “If everyone back-tracks, the salary cap (rules) always had a line in it that said whatever it says in the rules, there is an onus on everyone that’s using them to not try and find loopholes and circumvent them,” Baxter said. “They’ve always pretty much said what came out in the Myners report, that those kind of things you shouldn’t even be attempting to do.
“Things about ‘do image rights count for this, does childcare count’ they were all wrapped up in a very short sentence that you shouldn’t try to find ways around supplementing a player’s salary. What the Myners report did was put that in detail, to try and prevent people pushing the loopholes and the bits on the outside. If your approach has been like that it hasn’t changed at all really, you know your amounts, your credits, and if you have any doubts you phone Andrew Rogers and get some clarity.”
Always a Wasp
