Saracens face 'forensic' financial audit if crowned Prem champions

Following the implementation of toughened-up salary cap regulations after the Lord Myners review, Saracens will face an extended forensic financial audit if crowned Gallagher Premiership champions this Saturday. The London club was automatically relegated from the top flight at the end of the 2019/20 season for repeated salary cap breaches. 

That controversy included a salary cap review done by the late Lord Myers and one of the additional recommendations adopted outside of the regular annual audit of all 13 clubs was that the title winners every season would be subjected to an extended review undertaken by PwC’s forensic services team. 

This resulted in an extended audit into 2021 champions Harlequins, as they became the first club to win the Premiership title with these new regulations in place, and a similar investigation will take place into whichever club wins the 2021/22 season final between Saracens and Leicester this Saturday at Twickenham. 

It will be an intriguing review no matter which club takes the title at the weekend. While an investigation into Saracens following their first year back in the top flight would understandably attract massive interest given their previous salary cap troubles, Leicester have had its own historic issues with its salary accounting and a recent investigation only culminated in March.

That found that a third-party company had made payments to the image rights companies of Leicester players and the outcome was that Premiership Rugby ordered the Tigers to pay £309,841.06 in fines and taxes over these issues surrounding seasons 2016/17 to 2020/21.

Ahead of this weekend's 2021/22 final between Saracens and Leicester, Premiership Rugby has now published its 20-page salary cap report covering the 2020/21 season and the level of additional investigation that was done on Harlequins because they were crowned 2021 champions was immense. There were no adverse findings regarding Quins - but the increased policing left nothing to chance.  

The report read: “In line with the additional powers provided as part of the salary regulations 2020/21, this was the first season in which an extended forensic audit was completed. As 2020/21 winners, Harlequins was the first club to be subject to an extended forensic audit using forensic technology to analyse the communications between club officials and playing staff that may have a direct impact on the application of the salary regulations at the club. 

“This extended audit covers both the club and players. Email records from selected club officials during a stated timeframe were obtained and reviewed, and the mobile phones of selected club officials were forensically imaged. 

“PwC’s forensic software then applied a targeted set of search terms to the data (from the emails and mobile phones, including WhatsApp messages) in order to identify information within the responsive documents that indicated areas of potential relevance to the salary regulations. 

“The documents deemed as potentially relevant were then reviewed by the salary cap director who then met with the club CEO and other relevant staff to discuss the results of the extended audit and for them to answer any questions in respect of any relevant documents.

“The regulations require the salary cap director to review tax returns and bank statements of at least half of the club’s senior players, including at least half of the club’s best-paid players. In addition to this, the salary cap director interviewed at least five of the club’s players. 

“Harlequins and their players provided full and open co-operation during this process. There were no adverse findings coming from this extended audit that would impact the club’s compliance with the salary cap. Harlequins and their players should be commended for their approach, support and full compliance towards this new provision within the salary cap.”

Speaking at a media briefing following the publication of the 2020/21 report, salary cap director Andrew Rogers said about the new regulations: "We have just completed that with Harlequins for last year so that covers a real detailed forensic assessment that goes into club officials’ emails and phone messages as well as player bank statements and tax returns for over half the squad, so it is a very detailed piece of work that we now have undertaken this year and will continue to do so going forward.

“With the annual audit we do at least three players at each club for their tax returns and then for the extended audit, the champions, we do half of their playing squad, we look at tax returns and bank statements over a period of time. It's more extensive. However, there is nothing stopping me at any point of time from making requests to a player or a club for further information if I suspect there is some wrongdoing."  

• Click here to read the full 20-page 2020/21 Premiership Rugby salary cap report