IRFU denies under-paying players

THE Irish Rugby Football Union is on a collision course with player representatives IRUPA.

The governing body defended itself vigorously against claims its under-paying players and is seething that IRUPA (Irish Rugby Union Players Association) decided to go public on a variety of financial issues yesterday.

Union spokesman John Redmond reacted strongly and said: “The IRFU is dismayed and disappointed that a mutual agreement has suddenly become a public issue through the media.”

Redmond said the IRFU had been seen to be proactive by bringing players back to Ireland and insisted that they were paid top-level basic salaries.

However, newspaper reports drew comparisons with other countries as to players’ earnings from international match fees and win bonuses but Redmond said that it wasn’t a level playing pitch.

“In other countries, the clubs pick up the tab for most of the players’ salaries. It’s different elsewhere,” he added.

In a year when the IRFU’s income totalled €34.7 million, Redmond revealed that the professional game cost €24m to run.

The IRFU, Redmond also pointed out, had run up a deficit of €10.5m over the last two years.

Professional players in Ireland earned some €12.5m last year and the average guaranteed salary for the top 30 players in the country came to €153,000.

Those in the upper level had a guaranteed salary of €165,000 which did not include appearance fees at international level of €1,270 per match or win bonuses of €3,810 per game (excluding the match against USA tomorrow for which a win bonus runs at €1,910).

In a further effort to strengthen the IRFU challenge to IRUPA’s complaints, which were made by Chief Executive Niall Woods, Redmond pointed out that all earnings are additional to the money (appearance and win bonus) available for appearing for provincial sides in the Celtic League and Heineken Cup.

“The appearance money and win bonus schemes might not have risen much, but the costs to the IRFU for wages in the professional era have risen 163% since 1998. The wage bill for the top 15 players in the country has gone up by 300% in the same time and I think that speaks for itself.”