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
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments