ALLIANZ IS SET to end its sponsorship of Saracens on the back of the salary cap scandal.

The German insurance firm has been the club’s chief sponsor for eight years but according to a report in The Financial Times, they are going to end their deal with the European champions. The contract was worth a reported £2m a year.

Saracens have been rocked by scandal since November, first when they were docked 35 points and fined £5.36m after it was discovered they had broken the salary cap rules for three years on the trot.

That tally was doubled to 70-points three weeks ago – meaning Saracens will be relegated at the end of this season after the club admitted they unable to comply with salary-cap regulations for this campaign.

Another problem emerged last week when Saracens received a £50,000 fine from an independent panel for fielding an ineligible player in their Champions Cup pool game against Racing 92. The player in question, Titi Lamositele, was allowed to play against Racing even though his work permit had expired.

In response both Racing 92 and Glasgow Warriors have hit out at the judgment, Racing as they have lost out on a home quarter-final, Glasgow because they are now out of the competition.

 “Whether it is intentional or not, they have played an ineligible player and there is a precedent set in the past in Europe where teams have been docked points for playing an ineligible player,” Dave Rennie, the Glasgow coach, said. “In the end, what you permit, you promote.

“What they are saying here is that it is OK to play an ineligible player as long as you are prepared to pay a fine. It is disappointing from our point of view.”

“I would hope EPCR would review this. When we look at the precedent — other clubs have been docked points so why is this situation different? Saracens have been in the news a fair bit and have been hammered a few times and now they are going soft on them? I don’t understand the reasoning for not docking points.”