ENGLISH AND EUROPEAN champions Saracens have been docked 35 points and fined £5.36 million (€6.2m) for breaching the Premiership Rugby salary cap over several seasons, Premiership Rugby announced today.
Saracens — who provided nine of the England squad that reached last Saturday’s Rugby World Cup final — had been subject to a nine-month investigation.
An independent panel adjudicated that they had indeed contravened the salary cap — which is set at £7m (€8.1m) a year.
“The decision of the Independent Panel is that Saracens Rugby Club failed to disclose payments to players in each of the seasons 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19,” read a statement from Premiership Rugby.
“In addition, the Club is found to have exceeded the ceiling for payments to senior players in each of the three seasons. The Panel therefore upheld all of the charges.
The sanction that has been imposed on Saracens Rugby Club by the panel is: a total fine of £5,360,272.31 and a total deduction of 35 league points.”
Saracens who topped the Premiership table last season with 78 points — before going on to beat Exeter in the final will begin the fourth round of matches on -26 points.
Newcastle Falcons finished bottom last season with 31.
“The Salary Cap Regulations stipulate that a points deduction may be imposed in the current season (2019-20) only,” read the statement.
“The sanction has no bearing on any other domestic or European competition.”
Saracens can seek a review of the decision by an arbitration body but it is only able to on the strictest of terms.
“The review can only be on the basis that there has been an error of law, the decision is irrational or that there has been some procedural unfairness,” read the statement.
“In the event that Saracens Rugby Club seeks a review, the sanctions will be suspended pending the outcome of that review.”
Saracens have dominated domestic and to a certain extent European rugby in the past decade winning the Premiership five times and the European trophy on three occasions.
Their squad reads like a who’s who of English rugby with Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Jamie George to name but three whilst they also have other World Cup stars in Wales’s Liam Williams and Scotland’s Duncan Taylor.
Tuesday’s judgment will bring huge pressure on the club to be able to retain some of those stars.
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They will appeal it and end up with a massively reduced points deduction / fine in the end. All this is for show by Premiership rugby.
@Sean O’C: they won’t though. The rules around the appeal have already been defined to prevent this from happening
Good enough for them, this was on the cards for a while and with 2 of their directors stepping down recently it was almost an admission of guilt. This will obviously affect them next season but I wonder what knock ons it will have for this year given that they’ll have to focus more on the league. Might suit munster down to the ground
@Jim Demps: next month is huge for Munster
@Jim Demps: or winning the European Cup is there only way to get into Europe for next season and they’ll go all out to win it
@Jim Demps: forget the league. Win the Champions Cup this year and then be back the following year.
@Wheresmyjumper: exactly
@Jim Demps: Jim, hate you break it to you but they will still dominate you even with your “enforcers” in the pack. They are just too strong
@Wheresmyjumper: I was thinking the same, but that would mean them proceeding as is, and if they are currently over the salary cap, surely they’ll have to make some cuts.
Relative to their income, that’s a huge fine. This is what UEFA should be doing with FFP.
@jacquoranda: also racism !!!
@jacquoranda: Different sport btw. UEFA may need to clean their own house first before dealing with others like the FAI. WAKE UP.
It was an open secret Premiership rugby were waiting until the world cup was over to hand out the penalties that should have been given years ago for fear of upsetting the internationals preparation. Still, better late than never.
Wow… Fair play. Premiership Rugby (im assuming is the English RFU) are not playing around here. They have floundered the rules and won European Cups and premierships at other teams expense. Be interesting to see how much loyalty these players have now…. I don’t think Saracens will be able to keep them if they no Champions Cup next year.
@Patrick McHugh: no.
Premiership Rugby is a separate entity that represents premiership clubs and controls the PL
@Dan Smyth: copy that. Same like the English FA and the English Premiership in football. Thanks Dan.
@Patrick McHugh: They didnt win the HCups at anyone elses expense they earned those and did not break any rules. They only broke prem rules and its only prem teams that are effected. If they had been playing in the Pro 14 they wouldn’t be in any trouble.
@Kingshu: no offence Kingshu but I’d argue it does effect the Champions Cup titles due they would not have them players in the squad if they adhered to Premiership rules. It would be too expensive for them to play these top players just in the Champions Cup only and not the Premiership. It’s just not feasible in rugby especially as the Premiership is a top competition. In my opinion Saracens were trying to have their cake and eat it.
@Kingshu: If they had been playing by the rules they might not have qualified for the HC! So in reality it does affect the outcome of HC.
@Patrick McHugh: What European rules did they break then? They certainly can sign players just for Europe if they wanted. They may be striped of Prem titles but there is no ground to strip them of the HCup wins.
@Kingshu: The English clubs changed the rules Re the HC because they hadn’t won it for some time. Then this mob broke their(Premier) rules so they could win it. Tells you all you need to know.
@Kingshu: What your saying is correct…they did not break any European rules but in reality these players would not be in the squad or brought in if they adhered to the Premiership rules. It would be simply too expensive on wages to hold these players just for European ties and what it looks like to me is Saracens said feck it we will ignore the salary cap and get as many top players into the club as they could and play them in their top 2 competitions while all the rest of the English teams abided by the rules thus directly assisting them in winning the Heineken /Champions Cups.
@Tom Byrne: In fairness when they changed the rules it made the Pro 12/14 better, the IRFU/WRU/SRU should have brought in the changes to qualification on there own accord years before. It much more intresting now that the 3 provinces having to earn their spots rather than just finish above Connacht, and has made it more realistic for Connacht to qualify on their own merit. Its benifited the league as a competation. So what that Scarcens broke prem rules to win the Prem, they didnt break any European rules to win the HCup, Pro 14 supporters have nothing to get upset over as when they played us it was a level playing field (no cap for either team), the other prem teams and fans of these can feel annoyed but not Pro 14 fans.
@Kingshu: The reality is that if they followed the rules of their own domestic league the may not have won or even qualified for Europe. Therefore Pro 12/14 , French teams would not have had to play them. In that way they have unbalanced the the EC. If they were cheating domestically Ipso facto that team was illegally in Europe. They cheated their way into it and that’s a fact.
Can see a number of players being released now to bring them back under the cap, Players like Liam Williams, Taylor and Vincent Koch. Not always in Scarcens 1st XV but quality players. It would be great if Scarlets could get Williams back, he is a top top FB even if I don’t like him. Maitland and Taylor to Glasgow/Edinburgh, it would help strengthen the Pro 14 as a competation.
Apparently they paid wives and partners as admin, cleaning or procurement staff. It was a way they thought they could cheat and pay their players more than the cap. The thing is they cheated. Are they being stripped of the European and league cups they have won??
@Smiley: Prem may, European Cup does not have a salary cap, so no rules broken.
@Kingshu: Agreed on the EC rules. But they wouldn’t have the team they have if they stuck the rules governed by their own rugby union
@Smiley: From whom did this “apparently” come from? They did nothing of the sort, it’s clearly written in the PL rules that salaries to wives/partners us included in the cap. Everyone knows that. What happened was their owner (Wray) invested in companies owned by players, thus funneling them additional money in a way that they thought wasn’t covered by the salary cap, but it is.
Surely any team that cheats should be stripped of the titles they won whilst cheating ?
@Darren Moore: I agree. If you cheat you should lose what you gained. It’s just logic.
What does this mean for the Marmion deal?
@ScewMadd: Was never announced officially right? He might back out now.
Challenge Cup for 2020-21 unless they win Champions Cup. Savage punishment for them and fine too, can’t wait to read the ins and outs of what was involved.
@mrbryanrussell: The Guardian has stated that Itoje, Farrell and the Vunipola brothers were involved in property and other investments with the chairman Nigel Wray.
@Éamann Ó Duinn: ouch
Bahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Not the best few days for owen farrell
Sevco Lite.
I’m presuming (given the money in French club rugby) that the salary cap doesn’t apply to European competitions?
@The Great Unwashed: it’s a premiership salary cap.
@Dave O Keeffe:
Which (theoretically at least) places premiership clubs at a significant disadvantage against French clubs if no similar salary cap exists there.
@The Great Unwashed: true.
@The Great Unwashed: Their international team has a no selection policy for players abroad to try and combat the attraction to France. It generally has worked well with only a few exceptions.
@The Great Unwashed: The French do have a salary cap, its just so high it doesnt have an effect.
@Rochelle:
Yes, but French clubs have an advantage in attracting international talent (eg. southern hemisphere players).
@The Great Unwashed: yes but your position In Previous years league determines euro qualification so if you hadn’t cheated to achieve that position no euro Comp
Shoukd be no salary cap. Let the boys play
@Cranesofdublin: it’s the clubs themselves agreed to the salary cap.No one else to blame
@Cranesofdublin: and have 2 or 3 clubs fight it out each year with all the players and sponsors and the rest can just watch? Sounds great.
They will find it difficult to keep so many internationals in their squad, the likes of Liam Williams, Maitland, Koch etc as they have a good academy and may prioritize keeping some youth who are available for most of the season and not international duty.
Good lord flipping heck
Saracens to join the pro 14….?
@Trev: it might make business sense
Bet anything that points gets reduced to 15 on appeal. French clubs got away with financial stuff for years. EPL can’t afford to lose Saries from the league.
Is there a salary cap in all countries?
@macca1986: No.
@SilexFlint: that’s a bit shit. Team in england can only spend so much but a team in France can spend what they like?
@macca1986: Team in Ireland can spend what they like as well.
@macca1986: French league is more commercially viable, clubs have strong attendances and more importantly tv viewers which brings in sponsorship and the tv rights to those games was 97 million a year. Gallagher premiership clubs had combined losses of 50 million only one in profit was Exeter.
@macca1986: clubs in England did this to protect themselves believe it or not .My question is are other clubs in the firing line ,Wasps ? Sale ?
@macca1986: that’s why the french have struggled with their international team. They’ve flooded their league with high paid foreign internationals.
@Paul Harvey: it hasn’t helped but France’s international struggles have more to do with the style of coach appointed .
@Limón Madrugada: A few years ago a number of Prem teams were found to be breaking the cap. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/premiership/11982510/Premiership-rugby-salary-cap-cover-up-is-a-scandal-which-cheats-fans.html
Bath, Tigers and Scarcens, it appears that the prem didn’t have the legal ability then to enforce it and have tightened up the rules since then so they can enforce it. It appears the others have got their act together and complied, except Scarcens, I doubt the others having been warned and paid an undisclosed penalty have done it again or they would have been announced at the same time. Bottom 3 Bath tigers Scarcens at present, a kind of poetic justice, but think they will give more voice to ring fencing prem now.
@Kingshu: absolutely untrue. The provincial wage bills are subject to IRFU control.
@ConL: The IRFU do not have a cap. If its untrue then tell me what is the Provincial wage cap?
@Kingshu: the cap is that they can’t afford it