Super League’s new salary cap rules explained

It has been announced that the salary cap rules for 2024 will be changed.

The headline change is of course the introduction of an added marquee player allowing clubs to have three instead of just two.

However this player must be federation changed.

Further there is financial incentive to have this player be home grown.

A marquee player has a value of £150,000 on the salary cap however if federation trained this will be reduced to £100,000 but further reduced to £50,000 having previously been £75,000.

On top of this, the rule changes have seemingly brought in more monitoring of clubs’ spending which can only help the financial stability of the game.

The changes also see improvement for player welfare.

Here is now the RFL explained it:

“The finite cap for the Betfred Super League will stay at £2.1m for a fifth consecutive season, reflecting a recognition from the Boards and the clubs of the importance of financial sustainability, especially given the additional consideration of repaying the Sport Survival Fund loans.

“However, the Board have listened to stakeholders including the RL Commercial Board and supported IMG, the sport’s long-term strategic partner, in their view that clubs should be permitted to invest when affordable.

“Therefore, there will be a significant extension of the Marquee Player regulations which were introduced in 2015 – with a fresh emphasis on clubs being rewarded for developing outstanding British players, and on giving clubs additional spending power to keep those players in the Super League.

”Clubs will now be permitted up to three Marquee Players (up from two), but only if at least one of them is Federation Trained.

“Whereas previously all Marquee Players were counted as £150,000 on a club’s salary cap, with the exception of Club-Trained players who counted as £75,000, now Club-Trained Marquee Players will count as £50,000; Federation-Trained Marquee Players will count as £100,000; and Non-Federation Trained Marquee Players will remain valued at £150,000 in salary cap calculations.

“Other changes see a substantial increase in the Player Welfare Allowance from £15,000 to £50,000 per annum reflecting the sport’s commitment to ensuring clubs are placing player welfare at the heart of decision making; and the value up to which Under-21 Players will be exempt from a club’s cap will rise from £25,000 to £30,000.

“The final change will see each club in all three competitions set a Financial Sustainability Cap for 2024, set against the Financial Sustainability Regulations – with a working group to be set up to review the Regulations for 2025.

“The working group will include three representatives of Super League clubs, two from Championship/League One Clubs, one from RL Commercial, one from IMG and two from the RFL – the Director of Finance, Facilities & Central Services, and Robert Hicks, the Director of Operations and Legal, who will chair the group.

“It will be tasked with reviewing the finite cap, implementing the IMG recommendations around a Salary Cap Floor and looking at all ways of ensuring sustainable investment and protecting the overall financial sustainability of the professional game.”