Montpellier win salary cap battle

NEWS: French club Montpellier won an appeal on Tuesday against a fine imposed last week by the National Rugby League (LNR) for exceeding the league's salary cap.

Top 14 side were fined 470,000 euros (517,000 dollars).

"Montpellier Rugby welcomes the decision of the national commission of the French Rugby Federation which ...has found the club not guilty, ruling that there was no evidence that the so-called salary cap was exceeded," the club said in a statement.

"The club has only been sanctioned on appeal for failing to transmit accounts for audit which goes to show the disproportionate nature of the charges in this case."

The LNR said Montpellier exceeded the ceiling set at 11.3 million euros by paying players an additional 428,000 euros during the 2017-18 season when they finished second.

The salaries that attracted suspicion included those of the two South African brothers Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis for that season.

Montpellier challenged "the legal instability in which the so-called salary cap regulation is carried out, which renders it totally inapplicable" and has filed an application for the repeal of the regulation.

Montpellier lawyer Antonine Vey last week described it as "a Stalinist system".

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