A dozen Welsh rugby players currently earning up to £250,000 a year have been told the most they can be offered next season is £30,000, WalesOnline understands.
The crushing news leaves their futures in jeopardy and highlights the perilous financial situation facing the game in Wales, even after strike action was averted. One player indicated to WalesOnline that the whole situation was a "shambles from top to bottom".
Twelve Cardiff players, some of whom are internationals and experienced regional players, were called into individual meetings with bosses last Thursday where they were told there simply isn't enough money to offer them anywhere near what they are currently earning.
The 12 players in question are understood to currently be on deals ranging from £50,000-a-year up to £250,000.
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Some were told that they didn't even want to insult them with an offer, such was the dramatic drop in salary. Others were informed there wouldn't be a job for them next season.
It raises questions over how the four professional sides will compete moving forward. Some of the players in question have been offered bigger contracts in the English Championship, while others might opt to leave professional rugby and get a 'normal' job while playing semi-pro rugby.
There are also significant welfare issues to contend with. Cardiff could easily be in the Champions Cup next season, but it's feasible they will be forced to sign semi-pro players from lower levels who would accept the average wage of £30,000 or lean on academy talent to fulfil fixtures.
While Cardiff drawing upon semi-pro and academy players to face Toulouse and Harlequins after their senior players were forced to quarantine following a trip to South Africa was inspiring at the time, it couldn't be described as anything other than deeply concerning were it to become the norm.
With their budget set to drop from £7.8million to £5.2m next season, then down to £4.5m the following year, belts are being tightened with a reduced squad of only 33-36 players expected to be realistic.
That deviates from the expectation of the Welsh Rugby Union and the Professional Rugby Board, who believe squads of around 44 could be achievable with an average wage of £100,000, which would be £60,000 less than the average in England.
In time, that might prove to be achievable but not while the four professional sides have to honour the existing contracts of National Squad 38 players. Those NS38 wages are set by the Welsh Rugby Union, with those high wages for senior Wales players only serving to push up salaries for the remaining Welsh talent.
While the NS38 will be scrapped moving forward, the professional sides still have to honour the existing contracts, ultimately reducing the money left to go around, particularly with the burden of repaying the £20m CBILS loan.
Cardiff currently have a number of top internationals on their books, including Taulupe Faletau, Liam Williams and Josh Adams. The latter two are the subject of interest from clubs in Japan and France respectively, with suitors willing to pay transfer fees to get them out of contracts early.
The club currently have 21 players contracted for next season and only around £400,000 left in their projected budget to recruit, hence the average salary of £30,000 left to offer.
One workaround might be the promise of moving up to a salary closer to PRB chair Malcolm Wall's predicted £100,000 average once the current NS38 deals expire, but it is questionable how many players would be willing to wait for that pay rise.
The other solution would be for the WRU to invest more money into the sides. Around 75% of the Project Light money, received from CVC for its investment in the Six Nations, will go to the four sides, but the remaining 25% - which was once around £8m but is now understood to sit somewhere in the region of £4.8m - is being kept back for capital projects.
The idea is that it's being kept for a rainy day, but one player told WalesOnline: "You only have to look out the window to see it's p*****g down".
WRU interim CEO Nigel Walker's comments ahead of Wales v England on Saturday have only exacerbated matters, having warned the four professional sides he would "hold their feet to the fire" if they don't offer players contracts having "signed up" to do so by the end of next week. However, it's understood the four sides are yet to receive a complete and final Professional Rugby Agreement document as of Monday morning.
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