Aviva Premiership
Saracens want minimum salary cap introduced
ESPN Staff
April 1, 2014
Saracens played in front of 83,889 people when they tackled Harlequins last month © Getty Images
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Saracens chairman Edward Griffiths has called for a minimum salary cap to be brought in for Aviva Premiership clubs.

Griffiths wants to do away with newly promoted clubs spending significantly below the current salary cap as they attempt to safeguard against potential relegation. Instead, Griffiths wants clubs who are joining the Premiership to guarantee a minimum spend.

And Griffiths also wants the Premiership's salary cap to be either scrapped or raised further despite clubs being permitted to spend an extra £500,000 in next season's league. Griffiths' comments come in the wake of Saracens' record-breaking game against Harlequins and he now wants the league as a whole to push on in an attempt to attract new investment.

"For the next three or four years the Premiership collectively needs to take urgent steps to make it loud and clear we are open for business and encouraging people around the world to invest," Griffiths told the Independent on Sunday. "The salary cap keeps the league competitive but if the best players go to France or Ireland then we won't be the leading league.

"And relegation is the sword of Damocles - who wants to invest heavily in a club if they could be out of the league in one season? People say to me, 'what would happen if an Arab businessman bought a club and wanted to buy Dan Carter and Richie McCaw?' and I'd say 'great, fantastic - that's what the league needs'. We do not need a league of clubs that are just trying to survive. It is no good a promoted club spending £1.5 million on a squad.

"We don't just want the salary maximum scrapped or maybe raised by negotiation but a minimum salary cap of £4 million introduced too. I think three of our 12 clubs were below that last season when they were in survival mode."

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