The three Premiership clubs who vetoed reducing the salary cap from £7m to £5.5m

PREMIERSHIP plans to slash the salary cap next season have been scuppered after it failed to gain unanimous approval.

The Rugby Paper understands that struggling Premiership clubs wanted to reduce the cap to around £5.5m for next season.

They claimed it would help ease the financial burden of the Premiership being suspended, which is likely to lead to a £45m loss across the league.

Many clubs are struggling with no television or gate income, and they wanted to bring the cap down from its current £7m limit.

But during a meeting of clubs last week a trio of west country clubs – Exeter, Bath and Bristol – all voted against the proposal, and the idea has been scrapped.

Several other ideas have been looked at including making the temporary 25 per cent salary cuts permanent from next season, but that would also be problematic.

While another idea could see the banning of a second marquee player as clubs look to peg back players’ wages which are spiralling out of control.

The biggest hurdle could be convincing big-spending, ambitious clubs like Bath as well as Bristol – who pay Charles Piutau £900,000 a season – to change their minds.

NEIL FISSLER

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Tagged Bath, Bristol Bears, Exeter Chiefs, Premiership, Salary Cap