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Saracens face Premiership relegation after salary cap points deduction and hefty fine
By Online Editors
Saracens have been docked 35 points and fined more than £5million over breaches of salary cap rules.
The penalty leaves the London club on -26 points in the early Gallagher Premiership table and facing relegation at the end of the season.
A statement from Premiership Rugby announced: "The sanction that has been imposed on Saracens Rugby Club by the panel is a total fine of £5,360,272.31 and a total deduction of 35 league points."
The alleged breaches spanned the last three seasons but the points deduction will be applied in full this season.
The Premiership Rugby statement added: "The decision of the independent panel is that Saracens Rugby Club failed to disclose payments to players in each of the seasons 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.
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"In addition, the club is found to have exceeded the ceiling for payments to senior players in each of the three seasons. The panel, therefore, upheld all of the charges.
"The salary cap regulations stipulate that a points deduction may be imposed in the current season (2019-20) only. The sanction has no bearing on any other domestic or European competition."
Saracens have won back-to-back Premiership titles and are reigning European champions, but this decision is a hammer blow to the team both on a sporting and financial level.
England stars Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola are just two of the big names on the club's roster. The club have the right to have the case reviewed but must prove an error of law, that the decision is irrational or that there has been some procedural unfairness, the Premiership Rugby statement said. If the club seeks a review, the sanctions will be suspended.
A Premiership Rugby spokesperson said: "The salary cap is an important mechanism to ensure a level playing field for Premiership clubs and maintain a competitive, growing and financially sustainable league.
"Today's decision by the independent panel upholds both the principle of the salary cap and the charges brought following an extensive investigation by Premiership Rugby.
"We are pleased that this process has reached a conclusion and we look forward to another exciting season of Premiership Rugby.”
Saracens have since confirmed they are to appeal against the sanctions, which they have described as "heavy-handed".
- Press Association
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Latest Comments
I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).
Number Of Clubs:
1526
Registered+Unregistered Players:
651146
Number of Referees:
3460
Pre-teen Male Players:
320842
Pre-teen Female Player:
4522
Teen Male Player:
199213
Teen Female Player:
4906
Senior Male Player:
113174
Senior Female Player:
8489
Total Male Player:
633229
Total Female Player:
17917
So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.
So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).
https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.
The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.
In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.
Go to commentsOk I understand. Give them my number please Nick.
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