GLASGOW and Edinburgh's budgets have been frozen for next season which will effectively force the head coaches to cut the size of their squads.
Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, insisted that there was no request from Murrayfield for the pro team squads to be reduced in size, but he accepted that requests from coaches for increased budgets had been turned down.
The fact that a clutc
h of leading players have been re-signed on improved contracts, both keeping them in Scotland and fending off incredibly lucrative offers from France, will mean that the coaches have to release more players than they bring in, however.
McKie said: "Both squads are marginally down on last year from what I understand today, though they haven't yet finalised their squads.
"They are around 34-35-36, or thereabouts, and I know Sean (Lineen, Glasgow coach] is talking to two or three other players, so it's not cut and dried.
"We never discuss private contracts, but the professional teams have not been asked to 'ditch' players. We have alllowed them to retain their current budgets and increased revenue they bring in they will also be allowed to keep."
What that amounts to is anybody's guess at this stage, though it would be encouraging were the teams to be allowed to keep the profits from merchandise and ticket sales. McKie would not confirm whether this was part of the revenues they could keep.
The player budgets for the Scottish teams are under £2.5million while the English clubs work to a wage cap of £4million, and the Irish provinces and Welsh regions are understood to spend a similar amount – Munster and Cardiff spend more while Connacht and the Dragons have just a bit more than the Scots. The French clubs have budgets of around two and three times that of the Scottish teams.
One obvious fear for the Scottish teams is that with reduced squads they will have to play their leading players more during the season compared with the other nations, something already highlighted as happening this season and contributing to Scotland's poor Six Nations.
McKie disputed that, adding: "I was not aware of our players playing any more games than those in the other home nations. We rotate and rest our squads in line with individual needs."
• Scotland and former Glasgow wing Sean Lamont's future is up in the air after Northampton coach Jim Mallinder revealed he did not know where the player would be next season.
The 28-year-old has been at Franklin's Gardens since 2005 but is out of contract in the summer. He has been linked with a move to French club Brive which has reportedly fallen through.
