Montpellier's salary cap fine revoked
TOP 14 NEWS: French club Montpellier have had their €400,000 (US$442,511) fine for salary cap infringements removed by the French Rugby Federation’s appeals commission.
AFP claims to have seen documents confirming this.
However, the commission increased a previous €50,000 fine handed down by the National Rugby League to €100,000 for “breaches of transparency obligations”.
Montpellier was originally fined for exceeding the cap, at €11.3-million, by paying players an additional €428,000 during the 2017-18 season when they finished second.
The salaries that had attracted suspicion included those of South African brothers Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis for that season.
A furious Montpellier club president Mohed Altrad told AFP in early October they were victims of a “Stalinist system” where the league sets the players’ prices.
Altrad is currently running in the Montpellier municipal elections where he could emerge as mayor in March 2020.
A year ago the club was also cleared by the federation when they were accused of violating the cap in the 2016-17 season.
On Monday, English side Saracens were docked 35 points and fined £5 million ($6.47 million) by Premiership Rugby for breaching domestic salary cap rules over the past three seasons.
