Seeing as it was featured on the Monday News story and there is increasing discussion, I thought it was worthwhile talking about the Quade Cooper / Tim Horan situation here.
It originated on last week's RugbyHQ when Horan said that he understood that QC (Quade Cooper) wanted to stay in Australia if he could get out of his contract with Toulon. Horan then seemingly made up a figure of $200k as a potential amount of money that would need to be paid to escape the contract. Horan suggested that the ARU should pay this as it was vital to keep QC (Quade Cooper) playing in Australia.
One of the other panelists Peter Fitzsimons then suggested that was crazy and that the money should be spent on the grassroots and it was inappropriate for the ARU to do what Horan suggested.
Nick McCardle pushed for Horan to clarify his position and asked whether he truly did believe the ARU should be forking out to get players out of a foreign contract.
Horan then backed down slightly on his position and said that maybe the costs could be shared by the QRU, private backers and Cooper.
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Personally I agree that it is entirely inappropriate for the ARU to be paying for Cooper to escape his contract. His salary offer in Australia is more than high enough that if $200k will get him out of his Toulon deal and he really doesn't want to go, he could wear paying the bill himself.
The $200k figure though seems to have been plucked out of the ether so who knows what it would actually take to have his Toulon contract cancelled.
Realistically if Cooper is determined to stay in Australia now he should be quite vocal about wanting to do so and not wanting to move to France. In general it's not good business to try and enforce an employment contract if someone doesn't want to be working there. They're unlikely to be a success if their heart isn't entirely in it. If Cooper starts making the right noises about wanting to stay in Australia he may find that the Toulon issue goes away without costing much at all.
When/Where QC (Quade Cooper) said he wants to stay in Australia?
Is it a Fringe Benefit by law or a business expense? What would the cost of a transfer fee be attributed to?
I guess it could be structured as the ARU buying the contracting rights to QC (Quade Cooper) from Toulon but I don't know if that would pass the 'smell test'. The actual nature of it would be QC (Quade Cooper) paying to get out of a contract and if his employer paid that it would be subject to FBT.
I'm no accountant but I thought on principle, it would be similar to a fee paid to a recruiter in a general business.
What's the rule on third party "sponsorship" if a generous benefactor opted to pay the cost?
But a letter of intent has already been signed with Toulon and it would take a six-figure donation from the ARU coffers to keep him on the books.