Season’s in chaos after this ruling
The Shed at Gloucester’s Kingsholm Stadium is one of the most raucous terraces in rugby. Close to the pitch, low roof, it holds around 4,000. From time to time, the club considers expanding, rebuilding — plans for modernisation which are invariably shouted down.
It is in the Shed where Gloucester’s most fervent supporters reside — the ones who, on Saturday, get a first opportunity to make their feelings on the Saracens salary scandal known, directly, to those responsible.
The pubs will have been open for a good few hours by the time Saracens and Gloucester kick off, and the atmosphere won’t be for the faint-hearted.
There are arguments for and against salary caps in sport. Used correctly they can ensure fairer competition, and that has certainly been the motivation for Premiership Rugby.
Football’s financial fair play regulations were hijacked by an elite cabal and perverted to create a closed shop. Rugby’s limitations on spending are designed to have the opposite effect; to stop the biggest and richest dominating every year, to keep the competition fresh and vibrant.
even so, they have been unable to stop Saracens winning four out of the last five domestic titles. They are the definition of a super-club. They have the best academy and the most impressive recruitment. Their squad reads like a who’s who of the game, with one fifth of the players involved in the 2019 World Cup final contracted to them.
It was wondered how they did it; and now we know. They worked around rugby’s salary cap rules. The owner, Nigel Wray, was in business with several of his most important players, including Owen Farrell and Billy and Mako Vunipola, in a way specialist arbitrators Sport Resolutions believe was unfair. ‘Investment is not salary,’ Wray said when this newspaper asked him about it in March — but Premiership Rugby seems to think these investments were just that.
The 35-point deduction is as tough as the administrators could have been; the £5.36million fine a significant sum, given that rugby clubs do not make anything like the money in Premier League football.
Some think the Premiership did not go far enough. Tony Rowe, chief executive of exeter Chiefs — who have lost to Saracens in the last two Premiership finals — says the club should have been relegated. At the very least, he insists, they should not be able to play until they are within the rules.
For that is the big question for Premiership Rugby. What team will Saracens be allowed to field for the remainder of this season? What team at Kingsholm on Saturday, for instance? As the case is now going to appeal, can they still play a XV that Premiership Rugby believes is illegal? And what of beyond, if the appeal fails?
Are Saracens allowed to see out this campaign with a group it is known does not comply with the rules; or, as Rowe suggests, should they be forced to make the necessary personnel changes before continuing their fixture programme?
Should Saracens revise their squad to comply instantly; show the names and configuration to Premiership Rugby and satisfy them and the rest of the competition that it is legal? That seems fair.
Other loose ends remain. Did the players know they were being used in this way; were they complicit, or did the club present these investment schemes as an option without fully detailing the reasons why?
having watched Farrell stumble momentarily when taking away 23 from 31 at an england press conference — ‘it’s eight, is it eight?’ he said uncertainly to a member of the RFU media team — he does not seem the type for cunning accountancy strategies.
To some extent, there can be slivers of sympathy. Saracens are not just competing in domestic competition but against major clubs in France and Ireland, who do not live with the same limitations.
Wray could argue that a relaxation of salary cap rules would benefit english clubs in europe, and make for a stronger game.
he did not sign up to that, though. he signed up to Premiership Rugby’s concept of what is best for their competition.
And if he travels to Kingsholm on Saturday he is likely to be reminded of that fact in no uncertain terms.
There remains a big question ... what team will they be allowed to field now?