A bad few days got a whole lot worse for the Golden Lions when it became known they had lost their arbitration case against their Super Rugby franchise partners, the Leopards and Pumas, and now have to fork out millions of rands to the two bodies.
This just a few days after the South African Rugby Union’s General Council voted in favour of the last-placed team in the SA Conference in this year’s Super Rugby competition being relegated to allow the Southern Kings to play next year. The last-placed team this season was the Lions.
Already seemingly fighting off agents and other rugby unions keen to make approaches to the Lions’ best players, the union now have to find millions to pay the Leopards and Pumas.
Retired judge Willie Hartzenberg returned a verdict late on Tuesday in the arbitration case between the Leopards, Pumas and Lions in the dispute regarding the payment of franchise monies between the parties since 2006.
While Hartzenberg found the years 2006 and 2007 were dealt with, he ordered the Lions to pay the Leopards the amount of R2.56 million for franchise monies for 2008, 2009 and 2010 (R750 000 each year, over three years, plus VAT).
No amount, however, is payable to the Mpumalanga Pumas Rugby Union for this period as the parties concluded an earlier agreement on payment.
The Lions must furthermore pay interest on the amount of R2.56m payable to the Leopards, at the rate of 15.5 percent from the date of the arbitration agreement, namely May 31, 2012, until the date of payment.
The Lions have also been instructed to conclude a business arrangement for the 2011 and 2012 seasons (when the competition structure changed and became known as Super Rugby) with the Pumas and Leopards within two days after the granting of the arbitration order.
In the event of the parties not being able to reach an agreement, the South African Rugby Union is instructed to come to a decision on a fair and reasonable distribution of the amounts of R6.6-million for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.
Should Saru come to a decision that the Lions must pay a portion of the R6.6m to the Pumas and Leopards for the 2011 and 2012 seasons, the abovementioned amounts must be set off against the franchise payment of R750 000 per annum payable by the Lions to the Pumas and Leopards for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.
The Lions were furthermore instructed to pay the cost of the arbitration incurred by both the Pumas and Leopards unions. – The Star