Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Discuss all things Wigan Warriors. Comments and opinions on all aspects of the club's performance are welcome.
pearsy
Posts: 754
Joined: Mon May 29, 2017 5:21 pm

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by pearsy »

Twice in two days Wigan have been stitched up.Wonder if they are checking Warrington Leeds and Saints spending I doubt it very much?
Caboosegg
Posts: 3837
Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2014 4:51 pm

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by Caboosegg »

Lazy J wrote: Wed Jan 30, 2019 1:00 pm Bit more info here, the club claim it was an admin error due to the amount of academy players we used in 2017. reading the tone of it, they are going to appeal

https://wiganwarriors.com/news/2019-01- ... nal-result

The year we asked the rfl for dispensation!
These are two reasons not to trust people.
1. We don't know them.
2. We do know them.
southportcdm
Posts: 1150
Joined: Sun Dec 22, 2013 5:05 pm

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by southportcdm »

Seems like a genuine error to me but still very embarrassing. I can imagine the stick we'll get for 'cheating' again. Two points seems a bit harsh but, given our past record, we should take it on the chin and get on with it. Perhaps Lenagan would get more value for his cash if he hired the people that Warrington use to sort out their salary cap.
User avatar
si_bax
Posts: 225
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:49 pm

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by si_bax »

another annoying thing is Sky will jump all over this on Thursday, i bet Eddie cant wait to turn the knife and continuously bring up how its a "controversial start to the season for the defending champions"
Caboosegg
Posts: 3837
Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2014 4:51 pm

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by Caboosegg »

Reading wigan site if it true it is 100% an rfl witch hunt.

According to wigans statement.

The rfl have not followed the agreed process.

Have stated its a serioud breach

Not given wigan any alternative options.

Wigan are appealing.

Again though why the hell do Agent fees count on the cap. That futher limits a clubs spending potential.
These are two reasons not to trust people.
1. We don't know them.
2. We do know them.
User avatar
Mike
Site Admin
Posts: 7402
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2018 6:54 pm
Contact:

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by Mike »

AncientWarrior wrote: Wed Jan 30, 2019 1:45 pm
Mike wrote: Wed Jan 30, 2019 1:28 pm In the current revenge climate I'd expect an appeal to lead to a 4 point ban.

Also undeclared payments that come to light later can't really be penalized at the time of the payment, because no one knew about them at that point, so that seems fair enough to me.
So, you think an amount of £14,000 equates fairly to a 2 point deduction?

As I said, I believe the RFL is using every opportunity to "get back at" Wigan in particular over the recent SL vs RFL battles. Its childish, but then the RFL has become a very amatuerish organisation with some of its business practices.

The amount of coverage that's been generated by the new SL regime before the start of the season is massively more impressive than what the RFL managed to achieve. I have far more confidence that the next TV deal will be a better negiotiation with the SL in charge than the RFL.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
User avatar
EagleEyePie
Posts: 434
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 9:42 pm

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by EagleEyePie »

The fact that they've gone for a points deduction over such a small amount, that they tried to claim it was a 'serious breach', and the timing of the announcement, does seem to fuel the fire that there's a bit of a retribution in this.

The decision was made several days ago, so why delay the announcement of it? If it was because of the World Cup announcement it shows vindictiveness on the RFL's part for deciding that the World Cup can't be overshadowed by this news but the start of Super League can.

When you consider Saints escaped a points deduction for overspending the same amount I'm not sure how they've come to the conclusion that this is somehow more serious. Especially given Ian Lenagan's statement about the timing of the breach (the period where we had an injury crisis and needed to request dispensation for academy players to play).

An admin error does sound like a poor excuse but to be fair when you consider what the salary cap encompasses I'd be surprised if other clubs didn't make administrative errors quite frequently. I can't think of any organisations that don't make cock ups so I'm not sure why the accounts departments of rugby league clubs wouldn't be the same.
DaveO
Posts: 15880
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2002 5:32 pm

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by DaveO »

In the not so distant past about the time Wigan were in the mire over deferring wages in 2006 to sign players so got done for not sticking to the spirit of the cap, other teams actually broke it.

I believe Saints did so in 2003 to the tune of around £50k.

Eamonn McManus, the St Helens chairman, said: "We fully understand the RFL's initial finding. We consider the breach technical in nature rather than substantive, since it derived from a decision of the club some years ago not to take advantage of the salary cap exemption on players' appearance monies, which are paid out of the year's end Super League prizemoney as opposed to match-day payments.

They got two points knocked off for that but I am sure it was much more than £14k.

A 2 point deduction for £14k seems disproportionate. What are they going to do if a club breaks it by £70k, knock 10 points off?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
josie andrews
Posts: 35573
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:17 pm
Location: Wigan
Contact:

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by josie andrews »

Club Statement: Tribunal Result

At an RFL Tribunal held on January 24th, Wigan Warriors acknowledged a Salary Cap breach of £14,700 in the 2017 season compared with a salary cap of £1,825,000. The Tribunal fined Wigan £5,000 (£2,500 suspended) with a Super League Competition deduction of two-points for the 2019 season.
The breach was for a 22-week period of a 36-week season and ranged from £12,700 to £14,700 maximum through the period. No breach occurred during the rest of the season.

The breach represented Wigan being at 100.80% of the salary cap – less than 101%.

The breach was an administrative error arising from six small invoices of between £2000 and £3000 for Agents’ fees which were overlooked by a new administrative team after Finance Department restructuring in January 2017. The mistakes coincided with an unprecedented sequence of injuries demanding multiple salary cap administration changes and dispensation applications.

The genuine nature of the disruption is shown by the fact that eight young Academy players played 51 times in the Wigan First Team through this period, including six debutants who played 42 times.

Wigan gained no competitive advantage during this period of breach losing six games in succession at one stage. Wigan finished the season in 6th place and out of the Playoffs, their worst performance since 2006. The breach can be seen to have had no impact on the balance of the Super League competition. When the query arose from the RFL retrospective audit in 2018, Wigan responded by disclosing all accounting records fully and transparently to the RFL investigating team. When formally charged, Wigan’s first formal response to the charges was to admit them as breaches caused by administrative error and disruptive mitigating circumstances.

At no stage did Wigan respond to the charges with a not-guilty response.

Wigan were not offered an Agreed Decision by the RFL, as expected in the rules, before the Tribunal was arranged. Had this been offered earlier in the process, as provided for in the RFL Rules & Regulations, Wigan would have had the opportunity to research precedents and would almost certainly have accepted an Agreed Decision involving no points deduction, as offered at the last minute at the door of the Tribunal but with a substantial fine and costs.

The RFL legal team at the Tribunal represented the breaches as “serious” on a scale from “minor” to “serious” to “exceptional” in requesting a serious penalty from the Tribunal and cited Wigan’s breaches in 2004 (2 points deduction) and 2005 (4 points deduction) as relevant to consider.

Wigan Chairman, Ian Lenagan, commented: “Throughout this process, Wigan has been fully cooperative and transparent with no suggestion of concealment or deception and acceptance formally of the breach. This is not an integrity or dishonesty issue, purely an administrative error by a new financial team in an exceptionally busy and disruptive circumstance”.

“This breach clearly did not affect the competitive balance of the competition in 2017 yet the immediate deduction of two-points does affect the competitive balance of the competition in 2019.

“I take full responsibility for an admitted breach by Wigan and apologise unreservedly for the error and accept a fine is justified.

“However, in my experience of working in sport and sports governance, a points deduction is the last resort as a sanction for a significant level of breach. I am surprised that Wigan has been handed down a points-deduction sanction for such a marginal offence. Wigan will appeal against that aspect of the penalty.”

Wigan Executive Director, Kris Radlinski commented: “I apologise fully to everyone for the breach by Wigan but feel the points deduction is disproportionate to the level of breach. It has a significant effect on players, fans and the competitive balance of the season and is not consistent with the sanctions in other sports.”


https://www.wiganwarriors.com/news/2019 ... GQ3YugJ.99
Anyone can support a team when it is winning, that takes no courage.
But to stand behind a team, to defend a team when it is down and really needs you,
that takes a lot of courage. #18thMan
Jonathon Kerr (JK)
Posts: 193
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:29 pm

Re: Wigan Warriors: Super League champions receive two-point deduction

Post by Jonathon Kerr (JK) »

I appreciate the rules and regulations around player payments; but how short sighted are the RFL to punish a club in this way that continually provide the stars of the future via the youth and academy set up. I would understand the deduction if we had been paying first team players over and above, but not youth team players.
Post Reply