This story involves one of the World Cup winning players who I know very well personally and it is a story more about presumption. Back in 1995 the sport of Rugby Union turned professional immediately after the World Cup final.
As you can clearly see the biggest influence with rising revenue has come from broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals. The International Rugby Board was not keen on sharing and why they tried to prevent the sport turning pro. This should have happened years before 1995.
There had been many rumors this was going to happen with the rise in revenues being offered by satellite television. Rupert Murdoch with Sky was already offering deals to players and the Rugby Union had no choice or they would have lost the players. Many sports were looking at the English Premier League seeing what was being paid out. The numbers were big and huge fortunes in comparison to what players were being offered in other sports. An example is the fist football deal was only £44m with ITV from 1988-1992 which changed with Sky rising to £304m for the next 5 years.
Rugby in certain parts of the world is a big sport and filling stadiums has never been a problem. Players felt with the popularity of the sport they should at least be compensated. Players were given expenses up until the sport turned professional so you would be looked after to some degree. Sponsored cars, medical, a well paid job with an understanding company not that you had to physically work, but more about being a public relations type role at business functions. There were rumors most players had an insurance policy paid out after x amount of years/games which I am certain is very true.
Anyway back to the funny story as the South African rugby players who won the World Cup only received expenses for the 6 week long tournament. Sounds ludicrous, but the payment was in the region of R4500 which was the equivalent of $1.5K back then which is peanuts. Understandably why World Rugby wanted to keep it an amateur sport as the governing bodies were the ones making all the money.
The South African Revenue Services queried the players tax returns for the 1995 year as they believed the players must have got paid far more. There were rumors of car boots full of cash as win bonuses for winning the World Cup, but nothing ever was proven. The players were grilled by the tax office as the presumption was by non rugby fans they must be getting paid.
I know there was a certain amount of money undeclared pre World Cup as players were moving to other provincial teams and we all know you go for the money. Maybe it was all above board with poaching done via offering a better salary at a company possibly paid for by the Union/club. Being a player at the time myself I used to receive brown envelopes after the games which literally covered expenses and a good night out. This was in 1993 and way before money was allowed to be paid so the envelopes were never directly handed out, but were placed in your shoes in the dressing room.
I just find it funny the tax man had no real clue and thought the players must be earning millions which many of course went onto do. but not at the time of the inquisition.