WRAY STEPS DOWN
Wray out of the firing line just two months after record punishment
NIGEL WRAY has quit as chairman of troubled rugby club Saracens with immediate effect. His position had been under scrutiny since
Sportsmail’s revelations that the club broke salary cap rules, with Wray at the heart of the controversy. The embattled English and European champions were docked 35 points and fined £5.36million. It ends 25 years at Saracens for 71-year-old Wray, who has ploughed millions into the club.
NIGEL WRAY, the controversial figure at the centre of the Saracens salary cap saga, announced his retirement as chairman with immediate effect yesterday.
Wray will remain closely tied to the embattled English and European champions, who have re-appointed Edward Griffiths as CEO. Griffiths, chief executive from 2008 to 2015, called for the domestic salary cap to be abolished six years ago.
It ends 25 years at Saracens for Wray, which brought five Premiership titles, three European Cups and a move to the club’s new permanent home Allianz Park.
But the era will forever be tarnished after a Sportsmail investigation led to Sarries being docked 35 points and fined £ 5.36million in November for breaching the salary cap over the last three seasons, in which they won the league twice.
They were also investigated in 2015, when Griffiths was last at the club, but reached a confidential settlement with Premiership Rugby. Just a few weeks ago, when Saracens confirmed they would not ask for the salary cap decision to be reviewed, Wray said he was ‘fully committed’ to the club.
Wray, who is worth £ 315m, has ploughed money into the club but leaves under a cloud after
Sportsmail’s investigation highlighted investment irregularities with star players Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Richard Wigglesworth and Billy and Mako Vunipola.
While he is no longer chairman, not a great deal has changed. Sarries will appoint a replacement ‘imminently’ but the suggestion from the club yesterday was that Wray, 71, would not be scaling back investment or cutting ties. Nor is he looking to sell up.
He took full control of Sarries in 2018, having previously shared it with a South African consortium. He will remain the principal backer and therefore cannot enter into more co-investment arrangements with Saracens players as a way of side-stepping the cap.
Premiership Rugby regulations class him as a ‘connected party’ so any remuneration he gives to players would count towards the cap.
Wray challenged the November ruling initially but then begrudgingly accepted the unprecedented punishments. He angered many in rugby by never truly apologising for the breaches.
Sportsmail understands that Tony Rowe, Wray’s counterpart at Exeter Chiefs and the most vocal of Sarries’ critics, has not spoken to Wray for almost a year.
Wray was not present at Sarries’ recent defeat by Exeter, and has not travelled to an away game since the club were punished.
He is not the only senior figure moving on, with Mitesh Velani out as the club’s chief executive. He was replaced yesterday by Griffiths, who will be CEO for 12 months.
Under the league’s salary cap regulations, the CEO holds ultimate responsibility for any breaches, but there is no suggestion the ruling against Saracens has forced Velani out. He remains on the board in a consultancy role.
Griffiths — CEO of South African rugby at the time of their re-admission into international competition — is the third Saracens CEO in less than five years. He and Wray formed a potent partnership at the turn of the last decade before Griffiths resigned in 2015.
He was instrumental in Saracens’ pioneering approach to club culture and inspired their philosophy of ‘work exceptionally hard, be treated exceptionally well’ which included infamous overseas bonding trips where the team were encouraged to ‘make memories’.
In 2014 he called for the Premiership salary cap — which was then £5m, now £7m — to be scrapped, claiming it restricted success for English clubs and that it could break European competition law.
But his lobbying gained little public support from other clubs.
Announcing his decision to step out of the firing line, Wray said: ‘As we enter a new year, a new decade, it is time for the club to make a fresh start.
‘I am not getting any younger and feel this is the right moment to stand down as chairman and enjoy being a fan of this incredible rugby club. The Wray family will continue to provide the required financial support to the club.’ ENGLAND and Exeter prop Harry Williams will be available for the Six Nations after his four-week ban for brawling against Saracens was cut to two weeks. The initial ban, handed out for pushing a group of players after being substituted, has been halved as he did not injure anyone and apologised afterwards.