Six-year agreement signed between WRU and Wales' four professional rugby sides
The agreement lasts for six years, with the new package set to help with growing clubs and making sure they remain financially sustainable
Last updated 9th Jun 2024
A brand-new deal has been signed between the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and Wales' four professional rugby sides.
The deal - which lasts until 2029 - has been designed to make sure the sides remain sustainable and continue to grow over the next six years.
It's been announced by the Professional Rugby Board, with the deal - formally known as the Professional Rugby Agreement - seeing the WRU, Cardiff Rugby, the Dragons, the Ospreys, and the Scarlets bound by the new terms for the length of the agreement.
Otherwise known as the PRA, the deal means there's a new financial framework in place, made up of new funding from the WRU and the shareholders of the clubs with the aim of creating a 'sustainable platform for progress'.
It's also claimed the deal will provide clubs with vital financial predictability for the professional game and bring with it a key objective of developing home-grown players.
The PRA has been designed to promote success for the professional club game, as well as the national team.
Just recently, Malcolm Wall - the PRB chair - confirmed Standard Form Contracts for the first time, which are legally binding documents designed to give players certainty and clarity to where they stand.
Malcolm Wall said: “It is no exaggeration to say a great deal of work, time and effort has gone into establishing an agreement all parties can be happy with and which is designed to achieve the very best results for Welsh professional rugby from the resources available to us.
“The Directors of each of our professional sides, the executive staff at the WRU, my fellow Independent Non-Executive Director Marianne Økland and the Rugby Management Board all deserve credit for enabling Welsh rugby to reach this critically important moment.
“We also can’t let this moment pass without marking the important role our sadly departed colleague and friend Peter Thomas CBE played in sustaining professional rugby in the Welsh capital during his lifetime and in helping us reach this significant point in our history.”
Key features of the PRA:
- Salary caps to be introduced from season 2023/24
- Two kinds of contracts will be offered namely fixed contracts and those with both a fixed and variable element, where the variable element is linked to appearances and performances
- All contracts will be held by a central clearing house to monitor spend, ensure contract compliance and effect a new player-loan system across clubs
- Contracts for players of national interest will be agreed by the club and the WRU Performance Director
- The clubs are committed to a minimum spend on player academies
- All clubs are subject to regular audits of squad expenditures, contracts, business plans and academy performance
- The clubs are committed to centralising aspects of their commercial operations, with work already in process in this area
Welsh Rugby Players Association CEO Gareth Lewis has also welcomed the agreement.
Lewis has played a key role in making the new contracts on offer and recently negotiating changes to the WRU national squad selection policy.
The Professional Rugby Board comprises representatives from each of the five professional entities in Welsh rugby.
Those are Alun Jones (Cardiff Rugby), David Buttress (Dragons), Chris Lawlor (Ospreys) and Simon Muderack (Scarlets), acting WRU CEO Nigel Walker, WRU finance director Tim Moss, and two independent members - Malcolm Wall, as chair, and Marianne Økland.
WRU CEO Nigel Walker said: “Our objective has been to achieve a sustainable future for our four professional sides and for Wales and credit must go to all involved now this has been achieved.
“The cooperation between the WRU, our professional clubs and the WRPA has been a vitally important part of this process and we will continue to work together for the future benefit of Welsh rugby.
“We now have a structure which will provide a backdrop of stability from which we can build.”