English Prem to introduce "salary floor"

LONDON, March 26 : England's Prem Rugby clubs will face a "salary floor" minimum spend of 5.4 million pounds ($7.20 million) from next season as part of the league's push to drive up standards having decided to make it a closed competition with access only via "franchise" applicants.

Currently made up of 10 clubs, the Prem plans to expand to 12 in two years with new clubs admitted only on the basis of geography and after satisfying a series of financial and development criteria.

Prem CEO Simon Massie-Taylor told journalists on Thursday that the dream goal is to have 20 clubs by 2040, though that would depend on availability of players and other resources.

The current salary cap of 6.4 million pounds – that can be increased to 7.8 million with various "credits" – will remain in place, in theory helping level the playing field, while a failure to spend the minimum will be punished by fines.

In a league with limited income streams, some clubs might find that budget challenging while others, such as Newcastle who were recently taken over by Red Bull, and Bath, now co-owned by industrialist James Dyson, already look better-equipped financially.

Having closed the door to automatic promotion and relegation, the expansion plan should see two clubs joining in the 2029-30 season.

They could be current Champ (second tier) clubs that can meet the strict criteria, or newly created franchises, with Massie-Taylor stressing that high on the priority list is geography as there are vast swathes of the country with no club within striking distance.

Any new club would have to spend a season in The Champ, but it remains to be decided whether there will be a minimum finishing position that would be needed to allow them to go up – though they would