France captain Antoine Dupont has launched a broadside at French rugby bosses, claiming that salary cap controls in the Top 14 are "too invasive" for the players.
The scrum-half, who is currently recovering from an injury picked up in the Six Nations in March, said on Thursday that no individual commercial partnerships should be taken into account in the calculation.
"The salary cap rules... prevent us from using our individual image through traditional advertising contracts," Dupont told AFP, Le Monde, and SportBusiness Club on the sidelines of the renewal of the partnership between his club Toulouse and French car manufacturer Peugeot, for which he is also an individual ambassador.
His comments come as the National Rugby League (LNR) is discussing a new salary cap to come into effect next season.
The current regime caps Top 14 clubs at €10.7 million but LNR president Yann Roubert has expressed his desire to lower it, following an initial reduction during Covid-19.
The salary cap includes any form of exploitation of a player's image, for example in an advertising contract with a company that is already a partner of their club.
"This is a recently reinforced principle of transparency, which aims to prevent any circumvention of the salary cap through indirect remuneration," the League argued in a response sent to AFP.
Players are free, however, to benefit from "exercising his image rights" affiliations outside the club.
Dupont insisted the situation had changed from "four or five years ago" when clubs had fewer sponsorship deals.
“Today, it's becoming a problem for most of the players on the French team... because we already know we're restricted by this salary cap," he said.
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He complained that the demands put forward by the players' union Provale were being ignored by the LNR.
France hosted the 2023 men's World Cup and Dupont's France side have established themselves as one of the best and most exciting teams in the world.
At club level, French clubs have won the last five Champions Cups while the Top 14 has emerged as the leading domestic competition in the world.
All of that has led to record TV rights and attendance figures in the Top 14.
"We find ourselves in a growing rugby economy thanks to us, the players in the middle," said Dupont.
"And in the end we don't benefit from it because salaries are stagnating or even falling, and we can't use our image. It's starting to be too much.”
The NLR says that “the debate is completely open" and Provale is involved.
The scrum half also accused the LNR of being too controlling.
"Even within their right of oversight, they are trying to be increasingly invasive by asking us to name all of our (commercial) partners, even those who are not partners with the club." he said.
"They want to know everything about our assets, so it's turning into a bit of a witch hunt where they want to expose the cheaters but it's becoming ridiculous."