Well there was a time when the transfer rules stated all payments involving the clubs would count.
Now they might have clean it up a bit more and made it more specific.
Any idea when? We know for a fact that it wasn't when Bath signed [Redacted], and we know it wasn't when Barkley left mid-season.
It also wasn't going to count in the cap when Bath wanted Staff Armitage from Toulon, even though that fell through when Toulon actually named their price.
We also know that it didn't when Farrell Snr moved to Saracens (though the RFU paid that one, so a little different).
I can't remember which of Hape/Eastmond it was who arrived early, thanks to a transfer fee, that also didn't count in the cap.
Ford's transfer fee Leicester => Bath was also outside the cap.
Have you anything on any transfer fee actually counting to the cap?
It's a pretty basic principal, that salary is a payment from a club (or connected party) to a player (or connected party). Any other payments that aren't from the club in any way, or to the player in any way, have always been outside the cap, for as long as anyone has looked at these things.
Signing on fee (club to player) = inside, Transfer fee (club to club) = outside
https://d2cx26qpfwuhvu.cloudfront.n...1/28180024/Salary-Cap-Regulations-2019-20.pdf
Specifically, page 39, rule 1.n.(i) which has been there since the very first time I read the actual regulations, not just the précis (which has always lumped signing on and transfer fees together, causing this confusion - which we have debated before, quoting chapter and verse)
(n) subject to Regulation 2.3(b), any signing-on fee, transfer payment, relocation allowance or expense in connection with the transfer of a Player to any club or any payment in connection with the loan of a Player to any club or any other lump sum or option payment. For the avoidance of doubt:
(i) any transfer fees paid by a Club directly to another rugby club or to an officialforeign rugby union in connection with the transfer of a Player to the first-mentioned Club shall be disregarded and shall not count as "Salary" for the purpose of the Regulations.
