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Between him and the Bath CEO they take knobism to a whole new levelsimonokeeffe wrote:quelle surprise
In other great PRL news the Sarries CEO is demanding they scrap the Premiership playoffs as theyre unfair on league winners, dont have them in soccer (even though they have them in every major rugby union and rugby league league in the world) and get this theyre just a money making exercise
Bit of a volte-face given that they were one of the teams who voted in favour of bringing them in.simonokeeffe wrote:quelle surprise
In other great PRL news the Sarries CEO is demanding they scrap the Premiership playoffs as theyre unfair on league winners, dont have them in soccer (even though they have them in every major rugby union and rugby league league in the world) and get this theyre just a money making exercise
I'm fairly certain bonuses are part of the PRL salary cap. I'm not sure if there's a way of calling it something else and getting away with it though.simonokeeffe wrote:I think Sarries want to keep a notion of people paying into 80k stadiums a secret
I wonder...as Toulons owner has mentioned this in how they get away with crazy salaries, are bonuses included in PRL wage cap?
theyre not in France so Toulon say they just offer crazy huge bonuses for winning trophies which is why they get their roster
maybe Saracens do same/want to do same?
Five weeks away from the opening round of the inaugural European Rugby Champions Cup, the newly-assembled tournament organisers European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) are hopeful that many of the missing links in the new tournament will fall into place pending completion of a deal for French television coverage.
Much like the emergence of BT Sport into British sports previously broadcast by Sky Sports, this will see the Qatari-owned beIN Sports continue their encroachment on a domain previously dominated by Canal+ in France after last week’s announcement of a four-year deal for the Champions Cup.
EPCR are endeavouring to complete their coverage of the Champions Cup by dint of a deal with France TV which will most probably see just one Champions Cup match, and perhaps one Challenge Cup match, broadcast per week on the French terrestrial television. They hope to announce this deal by the end of this week or next week.
With the beIN Sport deal believed to be worth €17 million per annum, the inclusion of France TV should bring in more than €20 million per year for television coverage in France. This is short of the reputed asking price for the new European Champions Cup of €27 million per year, albeit more than the €15 million previously raised by ERC, while also short of the joint deal with BT and Sky for televising matches in Britain and Ireland which is reputedly worth €31 million per year.
Television deals
Significantly though, the completion of the television deals ought to make it more feasible for commercial partners to come on board given EPCR can now more accurately estimate how many viewers they will have each weekend.
BeIN Sport, which broadcasts Ligue 1 and the Champions League in France, has 1.5 to 2 million subscribers (some way less than the nine million subscribers with Canal+), which might equate to audiences for live Champions Cup matches of 4-500,000 based on a 25 per cent subscribers watching the game.
But, akin to the reduced audience figures with the less established BT Sport, with whom Premiership Rugby have gambled their all, this is the policy favoured by the Bath owner Bruce Craig, who makes up the executive committee of EPCR along with fellow vice-presidents Paul McNaughton (representing the Pro 12), and Rene Fontes (Top 14). It may also smooth muddied waters between LNR (Ligue nationale de rugby) and beIN Sport following the decision by a French court of arbitration to side with beIN Sport in declaring LNR’s deal €350 million deal over five years for coverage of the Top 14 to be illegal.
The EPCR is also still searching for an independent chairman or president, which had seen the utterly unlikely candidature of Brian O’Driscoll included in the shortlist. The more realistic contenders now are Andy Irvine, Hugo MacNeill and the well-connected Etienne de Villiers, who has served as a director with BBC World, Disney Entertainment, the ATP and Saracens.
With the advent of the French TV deals being completed, the organisers hope to unveil some of new commercial partners with so far only the outgoing title sponsors, Heineken, set to come on board.
Five weeks out from the first round, there remains no sign of a new trophy (or a resolution as to what will happen with the old one), a match ball, refereeing kit, kick-off times and dates for rounds three and four of the pool stages in December
In fairness to Saracens, if that's what they're doing to attract players I think it's an excellent system.Vamos los azules wrote:
Mind you, there was an article on the BBC website over the summer about Brad Barritt getting his MBA and listing out the qualifications earned by the current Sarries squad. The gist was that players go there to get education courses paid for so they're ready for life after rugby rather than the salary. I was a little cynical, but maybe they are better at that kind of thing than other English clubs. 27k for a degree, another 15k for a masters - it adds up.
They do seem to be laying on different sorts of "after work" courses. A bit more educational than messing around on a Playstation after training is over.hugonaut wrote:In fairness to Saracens, if that's what they're doing to attract players I think it's an excellent system.Vamos los azules wrote:
Mind you, there was an article on the BBC website over the summer about Brad Barritt getting his MBA and listing out the qualifications earned by the current Sarries squad. The gist was that players go there to get education courses paid for so they're ready for life after rugby rather than the salary. I was a little cynical, but maybe they are better at that kind of thing than other English clubs. 27k for a degree, another 15k for a masters - it adds up.
I reckon there is some good stuff about Saracens. It's just a shame it's so often buried beneath several layers of cr@p.mikerob wrote:They do seem to be laying on different sorts of "after work" courses. A bit more educational than messing around on a Playstation after training is over.hugonaut wrote:In fairness to Saracens, if that's what they're doing to attract players I think it's an excellent system.Vamos los azules wrote:
Mind you, there was an article on the BBC website over the summer about Brad Barritt getting his MBA and listing out the qualifications earned by the current Sarries squad. The gist was that players go there to get education courses paid for so they're ready for life after rugby rather than the salary. I was a little cynical, but maybe they are better at that kind of thing than other English clubs. 27k for a degree, another 15k for a masters - it adds up.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/1 ... ation.html
Our numpties prefer to indulge themselves in knock-knock games *** Edited by Mod ***hugonaut wrote:In fairness to Saracens, if that's what they're doing to attract players I think it's an excellent system.Vamos los azules wrote:
Mind you, there was an article on the BBC website over the summer about Brad Barritt getting his MBA and listing out the qualifications earned by the current Sarries squad. The gist was that players go there to get education courses paid for so they're ready for life after rugby rather than the salary. I was a little cynical, but maybe they are better at that kind of thing than other English clubs. 27k for a degree, another 15k for a masters - it adds up.
Absolute rubbish. Will Greenwood worked as a trader while playing in the dying days of amateurism - one of many. Apart from the recent foreign parachutists, most of the English players have been and are extremely well educated.Vamos los azules wrote:I reckon there is some good stuff about Saracens. It's just a shame it's so often buried beneath several layers of cr@p.mikerob wrote:They do seem to be laying on different sorts of "after work" courses. A bit more educational than messing around on a Playstation after training is over.hugonaut wrote: In fairness to Saracens, if that's what they're doing to attract players I think it's an excellent system.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/1 ... ation.html
I do think the English clubs have been way behind the provinces in terms of education and life after rugby so if that is changing then all the better for the players. I think there are only a handful of the top English players who even have degrees. Toby Flood was considered a bit of a freak because he actually had studied for one.
I'm not sure what that's about! Most of the players in the academy are enrolled in significant college courses [for example, Tom Sexton studied Law in UCD, Mark Flanagan studied engineering etc.], and all of them – since 2005-06 – work towards a HETAC qualification. A number of senior players have post-graduate or professional qualification courses either ongoing or under their belts already.The Anathemata wrote:Our numpties prefer to indulge themselves in knock-knock games with autistics.hugonaut wrote:In fairness to Saracens, if that's what they're doing to attract players I think it's an excellent system.Vamos los azules wrote:
Mind you, there was an article on the BBC website over the summer about Brad Barritt getting his MBA and listing out the qualifications earned by the current Sarries squad. The gist was that players go there to get education courses paid for so they're ready for life after rugby rather than the salary. I was a little cynical, but maybe they are better at that kind of thing than other English clubs. 27k for a degree, another 15k for a masters - it adds up.
As you say, that was the dying days of amateurism. The young lads coming through these days have only known professionalism and it's those I'm thinking of. It's worlds away from Greenwood's generation who always knew they needed to think about a 'proper job' and not just rugby.The Anathemata wrote:Absolute rubbish. Will Greenwood worked as a trader while playing in the dying days of amateurism - one of many. Apart from the recent foreign parachutists, most of the English players have been and are extremely well educated.Vamos los azules wrote: I do think the English clubs have been way behind the provinces in terms of education and life after rugby so if that is changing then all the better for the players. I think there are only a handful of the top English players who even have degrees. Toby Flood was considered a bit of a freak because he actually had studied for one.
ouchenby wrote:Quins 0-39 at home and Castres getting milled at La Rochelle. Can't see Europe being a priority for these clubs
Just saw that result this morning. Even though it's an early regular season game, that's the most surprising scoreline I've seen in a rugby match for quite a while. Getting nilled at home and conceding 39 points is unheard of for a top class team. Looks like Harlequins have some major problems, because you just can't lose a match by that much at home and not have 'em.simonokeeffe wrote:ouchenby wrote:Quins 0-39 at home and Castres getting milled at La Rochelle. Can't see Europe being a priority for these clubs
Quinns were full strength and Saracens were missing a good few in the pack
Wasps seem to be going okay. Narrow loss in the opener against quins(missed conversion 80mins) and beat Saints yesterday.simonokeeffe wrote:ouchenby wrote:Quins 0-39 at home and Castres getting milled at La Rochelle. Can't see Europe being a priority for these clubs
Quinns were full strength and Saracens were missing a good few in the pack
