{"id":204016,"date":"2025-10-10T22:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T22:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204016\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T22:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T22:47:09","slug":"r360-and-the-nrls-papua-new-guinea-team-could-both-prove-great-success-or-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204016\/","title":{"rendered":"R360 and the NRL\u2019s Papua New Guinea team could both prove great success. Or failures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s revert to this mooted R360 competition. Sooner, and not later, scores of rugby union and rugby league players in Australia and elsewhere will have serious career decisions to make, and their own Rubicons to cross. The gravitational pull of being paid in US dollars is attractive, even if the 45th \/47th President of the United States is off the leash with such magnificence that he can shift the value of the greenback with an utterance.<\/p>\n

The idea that players might relocate their tax residency status to Dubai or somewhere else within the United Arab Emirates, to end up paying minimal or no tax, is another lever that\u2019ll be pulled.<\/p>\n

\"Payne<\/p>\n

Payne Haas is on R360\u2019s radar.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

And consider both those factors in the context of players being offered salaries that NRL clubs, Super Rugby franchises, and national unions can\u2019t hope to match. If Payne Haas wants <\/a>$US5 million tax-free a season, then I kid you not, the R360 people will likely agree.<\/p>\n

In rugby league, Haas would be lucky to ever sign a contract for a third of that. In Australian dollars. And then he has to pay the Australian taxman a bit less than half of that.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re a middling Super Rugby player, or a professional NRL player devoid of much prospect of joining the ranks of the game\u2019s elite within the next decade, what is actually restraining you, besides fear of the unknown?<\/p>\n

Sure, R360 could be a concept worth the value of a plastic toy at the bottom of a Corn Flakes box. But domiciling an NRL franchise smack bang in the middle of the capital city of a third-world country isn\u2019t without risk either.<\/p>\n

If I were acting for a player, free from existing contractual obligations forbidding negotiations and legally able to accept an offer to play in the R360 competition, I\u2019d demand a couple of showstoppers.<\/p>\n

First, a three-year contract, and not a day less.<\/p>\n

Second, that the whole of the contracted salary amount, in US dollars, be put into a controlled monies account that can be operated only with the authority of the player, his agent and his employing franchise. Because that\u2019s the only way to ensure the whole of the agreed monies will definitely be there each payday in 2028.<\/p>\n

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Signing a long-term agreement with untried organisers promising untold fortunes could end up like winning a sweepstakes that promises a million bucks a year for the rest of your life, but the company files for bankruptcy 55 years before your projected life expectancy ends (as happened in the US this year, when Publishers Clearing House went bust. Google it).<\/p>\n

Third, I\u2019d demand a cast-iron tax indemnity, which operates so R360 must indemnify the player in all circumstances and for all taxation amounts payable, if it ever comes to pass that any part of the player\u2019s salary is subject to taxation in their usual place of residence, or elsewhere. Because tax laws can change.<\/p>\n

Fourth, I\u2019d insist that R360 takes out an insurance policy in my client\u2019s name, that guarantees payment of all my client\u2019s remuneration in the event the competition\u2019s fortunes and financial backers vanish.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve acted for several professional coaches and players who\u2019ve taken the bait and shifted their whole lives to play or coach in the \u201csporting Meccas\u201d of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Almost inevitably, they get stiffed financially sooner or later, forcing them to fight their employing clubs through FIFA\u2019s judicial systems.<\/p>\n

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I won all those cases and got them their money. But that\u2019s only because FIFA\u2019s rules permit transfer bans and other footballing sanctions to be imposed on the non-paying clubs if they stonewall.<\/p>\n

R360 isn\u2019t sanctioned by World Rugby; players and their agents won\u2019t really know who they\u2019re dealing with. Indeed, national unions, including Rugby Australia, have announced that R360 players<\/a> will be banned from international and Olympic representation, which evinces the idea of the \u201cworld game\u201d cutting ties.<\/p>\n

Note for completeness, however, that the Australian Rugby League tried the same tactic with Super League defectors 30 years ago. The tactic failed, legally. None of this is hypothetical scaremongering.<\/p>\n

As an athlete, Michael Johnson, he of the gold shoes and bolt-upright running action, was peerless. During his career, he won four Olympic gold medals, and twice as many at track and field world championships. No silver; same number of bronze. As a sport commentator on the BBC, he was McEnroe-esque. As a sporting impresario though, not so flash. Johnson\u2019s Grand Slam Track professional athletics league owes money all around the US and Europe. Grand Slam Track has undischarged obligations to pay numerous athletes a combined debt of many millions. It won\u2019t ever be able to.<\/p>\n

For its financial year ending December 31, 2024, LIV Golf Limited \u2013 the UK-registered entity that together with its subsidiaries engages in the promotion, management and execution of the Saudi- backed LIV Golf League \u2013 reported consolidated losses of $US462 million. That\u2019s worse than the nett $US396 million torched in 2023.<\/p>\n

LIV Golf is a money bonfire. Maybe those in charge of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund will keep stumping up for the next 50 years; or perhaps they\u2019ll pull the pin in 2027. The problem is, nobody knows. And Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau are still pariahs in world golf, even if the frigid temperatures have thawed a bit. The rugby league and rugby union multiverse might treat \u201crebel defectors\u201d the same, whether it\u2019s right or not.<\/p>\n

R360 isn\u2019t a stupid concept drowned in madness. Nor is having a rugby league franchise in the only country in the world that counts rugby league as its national sport. Each idea, though, carries magnificent risk for those who matter most: the athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s revert to this mooted R360 competition. Sooner, and not later, scores of rugby union and rugby league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-204016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}