Premiership officials question players over earnings as part of salary cap crackdown

Aviva Premiership officials have been turning up at club training grounds to check that salary caps are not being broken.



There have been allegations that some clubs are exceeding their £4.25million squad budget and players have faced questions about their declared income, free housing, payments to family members and overseas investments.



‘They’re obviously trying to crack down on this,’ said one player, who asked to remain anonymous. ‘There will be a few nervous guys out there.’



Crackdown: Premiership Rugby officials are visiting clubs and interviewing players about their earnings

The salary cap is designed to maintain a fair level of competition across the league but some in the game have recently expressed concerns.



Former England winger Mark Cueto claimed last year that several clubs are overspending.



‘There’s no way you can tell me that certain clubs in the Premiership are sticking to the salary cap. Not all, but I certainly think there’s a couple,’ Cueto said.



‘We’ve all got friends at other clubs and we all know what sort of money players are on.’

The salary cap will increase by £500,000 next season to £4.75million and Premiership Rugby told Sportsmail that the interviews are part of an ongoing audit and assessment process.

'We have an independent auditor and a salary cap manager who goes around the clubs to pick out a couple of players,' said Phil Winstanley, Premiership Rugby's Rugby Director.



'That's been happening for a couple of seasons now and it's part of the ongoing audit and assessment process.'

'There are a lot of anecdotal comments about the salary cap, but until we've got evidence then there are no breaches. If we have any evidence, then there are significant sanctions in place.'