This is all just a depressing mess, capped off by an insulting statement by Premiership Rugby.
What on Earth is there to come to a confidential agreement on if Premiership Rugby can say in no uncertain terms that no team has broken the salary cap?
How is it possible to come to differing opinions on whether or not a team broke the cap? Either you break the cap or you don't break the cap, it is as black-and-white an issue as they come.
If the outcome is so clear cut, why are talks being done so privately? Why are people being restricted from spilling the beans?
Why are we increasing the cap to £7m so fast and how is this cost not going to be pushed onto the fans? Why are teams breaking the cap being rewarded with a massively expanded cap?
Assuming teams did break the salary cap, and other teams are turning a blind eye for monetary compensation, then how is this fair on the fans? The Premiership advertises itself as having a salary cap and fans pay money to attend games with this knowledge. Therefore, there is a moral obligation for the salary cap to be adhered to and policed, otherwise fans are being deceived. I am not sure if this would be legally fraudulent or only morally fraudulent, but either way, there is an issue here.
I'm going to see how this pans out for now, but I'm in half a mind to quit watching the Premiership. I loved watching the competition before all this came out, but now knowing how rotten to the core it is and the direction things are going in, it's going to be hard to resist just giving up on it.
Worst of all, along with England's exit from the home WC, and the lack of neutrality in the RFU's England review, this could have an extremely damaging effect on any kind of legacy that the World Cup was supposed to have.
