Should the Premiership scrap its salary cap? – poll

Dan Carter's move to Racing Metro has frustrated English rugby clubs, who feel they cannot compete with their European counterparts on wages. Should they scrap their salary cap?

Dan Carter
Dan Carter will join Racing Metro after the World Cup. Should English clubs be free to spend more money on wages and attract the best players to the Premiership? Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images

Dan Carter will become the best paid rugby player in the world when he joins Racing Metro next year. Carter's move has left English clubs feeling jealous. Premiership clubs can only spent £5m a year on salaries, so they cannot compete with French clubs for the world's most expensive and talented players.

Is it time for a change? Saracens chief executive Edward Griffiths thinks so: "The salary cap has served its purpose. It would be a pity if the world's top players light up the World Cup on English soil and then leave to play club rugby in France. If the salary cap is left to forbid the required investment, it will kill any hope of growth. English clubs must compete in the European Champions Cup against Irish and French sides spending two or three times as much on players."

Griffiths has a point, but the salary cap was introduced in 1999 for valid reasons. It helps clubs from falling into debt, it prevents inflationary pressures and it provides a more level playing field for clubs. Griffiths says that English football clubs would never be prevented from spending as much money on wages as their European counterparts, but wage inflation in football has helped create an increasingly unequal world of haves and have-nots. Allowing limitless spending may not improve the long-term health of the English game. What is the solution?

Should the Premiership scrap its salary cap?

  18%
Yes
  82%
No

This poll is now closed

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