The one line in the salary cap rules that's likely to become a legal battleground for Saracens
Saracens’ alleged breach of Premiership Salary Cap rules could come down the interpretation of one sentence in the 57-page ‘Salary Regulations’ document.
Last week Saracens were docked 35 points and fined a total of £5,360,272.31. The club have appealed and the points deduction and fine have been suspended pending that the appeals process.
The issue? Wray was listed with Companies House as a director alongside players such as Owen Farrell, Richard Wigglesworth and the Vunipola brothers in companies Faz Investments Ltd, Wiggy9 Investments Limited and VunProp Ltd, and these ‘co-investments’ and potentially others have been branded as falling within the cap.
The decision of the Rt. Hon. Lord Dyson and his independent panel was that the North London club ‘failed to disclose payments to players’ in each of the last three seasons. Saracens were also found to have exceeded the ceiling for payments to senior players in each of the three seasons.
The broad understanding is that these breaches relate directly to the failure to declare the controversial ‘co-investments’ as salary. Wray hinted at the club’s defence last week, saying the club “steadfastly maintains that player co-investments do not constitute salary under the regulations. This view is supported by independent legal and professional experts.”
Saracens and Wray don’t think they’ve been caught red-handed, rather they believe that they haven’t breached regulations, and they will argue that the ‘co-investments’ that Wray took up with players falls outside regulations. What’s more, they’ll argue that Premiership Rugby Limited have already interpreted similar investments (possibly by other clubs) as such prior to this case.
“The club will continue to vigorously defend this position especially as PRL precedent already exists whereby co-investments have not been deemed part of salary in the regulations.”
So what’s the clause that the case will be fought on? Saracens appear to have come a cropper in section 2.3.
2.3 b) Any payment or benefit in kind which falls within the definition of Salary under the Regulations shall be deemed, for the purposes of the Regulations, to be made in the Salary Cap Year in which the payment is contracted to be paid or in which the service is provided.
The clause in question:
ii) payments to any employee benefit scheme, including without limitation any payments by the Club or Connected Party of the Club to an Employee Benefit Trust, Employer Funded Retirement Benefit Scheme or any equivalent entity shall be included in the Salary Cap Year in which they are charged by the 2018/19 Regulations…
The ‘connected party’ in this case is Saracens chairman – Nigel Wray.
So where to for Saracens legally? The review can only be on the basis that there has been an error of law, the decision is irrational or that there has been some procedural unfairness.
Saracens’ legal team will most likely argue that ‘co-investments’ do not constitute ‘any equivalent entity’. The gist of the argument is that as investments, the players could have potentially lost as well as gained money and that they do not meet the legal requirement of a trust.
If Wray is right and there is a PRL precedent, then the decision could potentially be overturned. If it isn’t overturned, then we could learn what precedents Wray was referring to, which could open its own bag of worms.
Comments on RugbyPass
I’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
39 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
37 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
39 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to comments