Sonny Bill deal not seen as trend

Sonny Bill deal not seen as trend
By HAMISH BIDWELL - The Press | Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Sonny Bill deal not seen as trend - New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on Stuff.co.nz

Leading sports agent Warren Alcock doubts the financial settlement reached between the Bulldogs NRL club and Sonny Bill Williams marks a move towards football-style transfer fees being paid for rugby and league players.

The Bulldogs had an injunction slapped on Williams to prevent him playing for Toulon, whom he signed with after walking out on his five-year deal at the Sydney club.

Now a compensation fee of $A750,000 ($NZ918,000), believed to have been paid by Williams' associate, Anthony Mundine, means the 23-year-old is free to play rugby in France or anywhere else.

The former Kiwi back-rower has signed a one-year deal at Toulon, with the option of a further season, but could play Super 14 rugby as soon as 2010. He is barred from the NRL until the end of the 2012 competition.

The deal raises questions about the contracts of other league and union players, and whether they can be broken as long as the player is capable of paying compensation.

Asked if it signalled the arrival of an open market where everyone was for sale and unions and clubs could name their price, Alcock said: "I don't think this case necessarily lends itself to that conclusion."

Alcock, of Global Sport Management, which represents athletes such as Michael Owen, Steve Harmison, Daniel Carter and Richie McCaw, said: "It's not uncommon for players to try to exit a contract part-way through their deal and for them to have to pay a sum of money. But that case (Williams') is high-profile and unusual.

"I'll take a stab and say that you'd get two or three of these cases a year that we would deal with. In those cases we'd say, 'Look, guys, the player wants to move on and what's it going to take to make that happen?'

"Our view is that you should always try and work through these things amicably. Sure, you can try and walk out on your contract, but you run the risk of lawsuits and not everyone has the same financial backing to challenge those as Toulon appear to have.

"Take UK rugby clubs, for example.

"They've got a salary cap over there, for a start, and even without a salary cap they couldn't be paying that kind of compensation.

"Obviously Toulon seem to have that luxury of a reasonably endless supply of funds, but I'm just judging that from the outside."

So will players and clubs take a lead from the Williams case?

"I can see some players looking at this and saying, `I want to get out of my contract and that's a path I could try'.

"Put it this way, we wouldn't be advising any player that we represent to go about things that way.

"I'd say that if any player is thinking about it, they're a bit naive."