RUGBY FEES DISPUTED

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31539, 29 November 1967, Page 18

RUGBY FEES DISPUTED

“I feel that clubs should have been given more notice about the payment of team fees than having to read about them in ‘The Press’ this morning,” said Mr C. L. Rhodes, at a meeting of the Canterbury Rugby Union management committee last evening.

Mr Rhodes was commenting on a financial report presented by the treasurer (Mr R. W. Thomas) which stated that clubs would be asked to pay team fees because of the financial loss the union would suffer this season.

Mr Thomas said that the letters to the clubs outlining the union’s financial position had been posted on Friday. “We always make announcements on the union’s finances

in open meeting before we send out the accounts. In this case the clubs did have prior warning,” he said. Earlier Warning The president (Mr A. K. Johnson) said the clubs must have been aware of the position. “I warned them earlier this season and a month ago an article in “The Press’ mentioned the strong possibility of clubs having to pay fees." Mr D. B. Doake said that in the future clubs should be told at the beginning of the season that they may have to pay extra fees. Mr Thomas: We should get this clear. The fees the clubs are being asked to pay are normal costs which they know about. It is just that in other years, when overseas tours have boosted our income, we have remitted the fees. This year we are charging them, ft is like a Christmas bonus; it is gratuitous. In good years it is paid, in bad years withheld, but when it is paid for some years the recipient expects it as of right Mr C. H. McPhail said that the union had made a realistic appraisal of the situation. “The clubs may grumble but they, just as we have had to do, must face up to the fact that without overseas tours, revenue must be reduced.”