Hetherington speaks out after Rhinos breach salary cap

Leeds Rhinos CEO Gary Hetherington says the club are “obviously disappointed” after they were fined £20,000, £10,000 of which is suspended, for breaching the salary cap in 2018.

The RFL released a statement earlier today stating that the Rhinos “acknowledged these errors and reached an ‘Agreed Decision’ with the RFL in accordance with RFL processes.”

Hetherington has taken full responsibility for the administrative error and has released a statement on the club’s website explaining the breach.

“This was an administrative error on our part for which I take responsibility and we are obviously disappointed to lose our 23-year unblemished salary cap compliance record,” he said.

“We had no idea we had exceeded the ‘live’ cap at the time and with hindsight we could have averted the breach by loaning out a player to another club.

“Two of the players, Jack Walker and Luke Briscoe, were promoted from part time to full time status during the season and whilst their increased monthly payments were included in our salary cap return to the RFL, we didn’t lodge their new contracts until the end of the season.

“Matt Parcell also had his contract extended at the start of the season and whilst the increased monthly payments were paid the contract wasn’t signed and lodged with the RFL until the end of the season and those combined breaches created the breach we now accept.

“Managing a Super League club salary cap is, and has always been, a very precise operation and we have now revised some of our internal procedures to ensure we don’t make the same mistake again.”