The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Saracens face £5m fine and points deduction –
RUGBY UNION: £5m fine and 35 points deduction
Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill can envisage Saracens being stripped of their titles won when they made multiple breaches of Premiership Rugby’s salary cap regulations.
Those breaches have now left the club facing the “devastating” threat of being docked 35 points and fined more than £5million.
Cockerill was coach of Leicester Tigers in the Premiership for the first of the three seasons targeted by an independent investigation, which found the North London club – currently reigning champions of the Premiership and the Heineken European Champions Cup – had failed to disclose payments to players in each of the 2016-17, 201718 and 2018-19 seasons, and had also exceeded the ceiling for payments to senior players.
Cockerill was also a coach at Toulon later that 2016-17 season, when the French club lost to Saracens in the Champions’ Cup.
Saracens chairman Nigel Wray says the club will appeal against what they describe as “heavy-handed” punishments, and such an appeal means the sanctions, which would have the club on minus 26 points after just three games of the season as well as facing a fine of £5,360,272.31, will be suspended.
Cockerill can see further sanctions on the club if the appeal is rejected, and was shocked when told the news. He said: “My reaction was ‘wow’. I thought it was a spoof. I’m surprised it ever came to anything as these things generally don’t.
“It clearly has an effect because the salary cap is quite strictly policed, and there have been discrepancies previously, but they have been fairly minimal. I don’t know the details but it clearly gave them an unfair advantage.
“The salary cap is to try to make it a level playing field so it gives more opportunity for teams across the competition to win, and Saracens have won the league in two of the last three years and it clearly has an effect on Europe, on rotating the squad, on internationals and everything else, so it is a big deal isn’t it?”
He said he could understand calls to strip the club of the titles won over the period examined by the panel.
Wray, the often controversial figurehead of the club since rugby went professional, said: “For over 25 years, I have put my heart and soul into the game I love. This is absolutely devastating for everyone associated with this amazing group of players, staff, partners and fans.”
Saracens have won five premiership titles since 2011 and three European Cups in the same spell. They have stockpiled a host of England international players and latterly two Scots, wing Sean Maitland and centre Duncan Taylor. Edinburgh’s young lock Callum Hunter-Hill is also on loan there.
Premiership Rugby’s investigations were thought to centre around Wray’s involvements in “co-investement” companies established for players such as VunProp Ltd (Mako and Billy Vunipola), Faz Investments Ltd (Owen Farrell), Wiggy9 Ltd (Richard Wigglesworth) and MN Property Solutions Ltd (Maro Itoje).
The panel was established after a ninemonth Premiership Rugby investigation led to charges being brought in June. The panel upheld all the charges.
Wray added: “It was acknowledged by the panel that we never deliberately sought to mislead anyone or breach the cap and that’s why it feels like the rug is being completely pulled out from under our feet. We will appeal all the findings.”
“My reaction was ‘wow’. I thought it was a spoof. I’m surprised it ever came to anything as these things generally don’t. EDINBURGH HEAD COACH RICHARD COCKERILL