The question of legality of salary caps is a complex one, the central issues are very well defined, as are the applicable legal principles. If it ever was challenged in court, the result is no foregone conclusion.

The RFU after their recently salary cap investigations, swept several apparent breaches, ruining into millions, under the carpet. The general consensus seemed to be, that they took legal advice and where advised that a case against a wealthy team willing to fight it would be very long & expensive with only a 50\50 chance of winning. They decided not to try.

I am sure the exact details etc are not the same, but it does highlight the problems.

Yep. Though of course that was potentially against several clubs who'd breached the cap. If there's only 1 then the governing body may be willing to take that case on.

I've said before the bigger question regarding the SC would be less it's legality and more how much time and money the RFL is prepared to spend defending it when fundamentally it doesn't actually affect the RFL as an organisation.

3 points according to Marwan Koucash - For speeding lol

Three points. Open season lads, get those players paid elsewhere off your books and only face a miniscule penalty.

If you're going to have a salary cap at all, at least bother enforcing breaches of it properly.

think he is joking Andy

And the 'Jumping The Gun' prize goes to Andy Gilder

It won't be announced today will it? I thought today was to hear evidence and then they go away and make a decision.

6 points and 5k fine. Got off lightly imo

6?!! I'm sure the good Doc will think twice about getting his sums wrong next time...yeah right! The breaches might've been from 14' and 15' but to then announce the signing of a top winger on the same day? Big two fingers up at the RFL

No details of how Salford broke the cap and by how much...

6 points is the maximum punishment under the rules that they broke. IF they are found to be breaking the rules this year and beyond, it's a maximum of 20

It doesn't matter if its 6, 20 - or 100. Once the Middle 8's start, the slate is wiped clean and they start on zero along with everyone else.

Now deducting points from their Middle 8's points total would be a deterrent....

The lack of increase in SC at least in line with one of the indices used (inflation for instance) has all the hallmarks of an unenforceable contract/inclusion term given the restrictions it brings about.

Also it could be proposed that the lack of increase has a detrimental effect on player welfare.
The lack of a wider player depth often has clubs playing players that are injured and clubs reluctant to rotate players because of the lack of depth so are more susceptible to fatigue and thus injury.
You also have situations of player drain, whether to another sport or leaving RL to find another career due to the small amounts paid to many junior/lesser experienced players.
This does and has had an overall impact on RL across the board and strangles the sport, not having big name stars makes SL less attractive to sponsors also.

Saw koukash said they might have made a mistake or two but had definitely not done anything wrong. Does he not understand the meaning of the word mistake? Hahaha

The problem is we haven't been told the details of in what ways Salford broke the cap and by how much.

If they broke it by a lot or there were numerous "Puletua" contracts that hadn't been declared then I think they've got off very lightly.

However if they've only broken it by a bit then it's probably about right.

Without the details we've really no idea how much of a punishment it is.

If Magic SuperBeetle is right and 6 points was the maximum possible punishment then they haven't got off lightly. They've received the maximum
Reports say they were found guilty in regard to payments involving 3 players over 2 years and exceeding the finite cap in one year and not guilty in relation to payments to 2 other players

So you want to effectively relegate them and ruin the livelihoods of a bunch of players who had nothing to do with it.

I don't care what the rules said, if they've broken the cap by a lot I'd regard a 6 point deduction as lenient. I've also not seen anything in the rules about salary cap breaches and the punishment for it, but then they might not be published.

Again, without the details, we can't tell whether it's an effective punishment or not. If they broke the cap by £10k then it is. If they broke the cap by £1m then it's not.

And what about the 2 team's who did get relegated the year Salford broke the cap...

To be fair the 2 relegated teams were way behind Salford in 2014. They'd have to have been given a 14 point deduction to take them below Bradford to 13th place.

No we would probably still have gone down. But Salford earned those points with a squad they shouldn't have had. Take some of those players out would they have acquired as many points? Who knows.

It's not a punishing the players though is it - it's a penalty against the club for breaking the rules; if that has any detrimental effect on players or supporters, there's only one person to blame for that, and he doesn't work for the RFL.

As a Salford fan I'm happy to take the punishment now we've been found guilty but I've got to agree we need more detail into the reason why. If other clubs in the future break the rules how can you judge as to whether they're then treated fairly.

From my understanding no media or public (though I agree witht that) were allowed into hearing, why?

Also I thought the Salary Cap was LIVE and the RFL monitored it constantly, so how come this goes back to 2014 season?