Wood hails new ‘marquee player’ rule for Super League

Super League clubs have today voted to give their support to a proposal that will provide a dispensation under the salary cap rules for each of them to sign a marquee player from the 2016 season onwards.

The decision was made at the Annual General Meeting of Super League (Europe) held at MediaCityUK earlier today.

Super League chief executive Nigel Wood believes that the decision represents a step forward for Super League‘s ability to attract top talent.

“I would like to congratulate the clubs on both their foresight in approving the marquee player proposal and for the mature and responsible way in which they have reached their decision,” he said.

“The clubs recognise that the salary cap continues to have an important regulatory function and the marquee player allowance provides a level of flexibility that will benefit both Super League and the wider sport.

“The ability to recruit one marquee player each will enable the clubs to enhance the talent pool within a competition which has a proud record of developing outstanding world class talent.”

Under the terms of the salary cap rule amendment, clubs will be entitled to sign one marquee player who will have a notional value on their salary cap register of either £100,000 if club trained or £175,000 if non-club trained.

Clubs will only be allowed to sign a marquee player if they meet clearly-defined affordability criteria based around their income and expenditure.