Saracens’ secret deals for England stars Itoje, Vunipolas and Ashton revealed in damning report on salary-cap scandal
SARACENS’ “reckless” cheating was last night laid bare in a damning 103-page official report into the salary-cap scandal. The English and European champs will be relegated at the end of the season for breaching Premiership Rugby’s £7million annual wages limit. Now the disciplinary panel has revealed the club had broken the rules on several occasions, […]
SARACENS’ “reckless” cheating was last night laid bare in a damning 103-page official report into the salary-cap scandal.
The English and European champs will be relegated at the end of the season for breaching Premiership Rugby’s £7million annual wages limit.
Now the disciplinary panel has revealed the club had broken the rules on several occasions, with charges ranging in value from £800,000 down to £511.92.
The full details of the report — which Sarries initially tried to stop becoming public — showed the worst breaches involved a host of Eddie Jones’ England players.
These included Maro Itoje, Billy and Mako Vunipola and former Red Rose wing Chris Ashton.
Ex-Saracens chairman Nigel Wray and two other directors were accused of paying £1.6m for a 30 per cent stake in Itoje’s image rights company.
And that was a staggering £871,000 MORE than the shares were valued at by accountancy experts PwC.
Itoje was also paid £95,000 over three years by a hospitality company based at the club’s Allianz Park ground, which was run by Wray’s daughter Lucy — despite no evidence that Itoje attended any hospitality events.
The report noted Itoje was not paid ‘per event’ and it was therefore a salary benefit, while Sarries claimed it was a ‘commercial arrangement’ by an independent company.
Wray was also found to have made payments of £1.3m into joint property ventures with players.
He pumped £450,000 into a company majority-owned by brothers Billy and Mako Vunipola, who starred at the World Cup in England’s run to the final.
A company named ‘Vuniprop’ bought a house funded 66 per cent by the Vunipolas and 33 per cent by Wray’s interest-free loan.
Wray said in his witness statement these payments were “bona fide commercial transactions with a number of players based on the merit of those investments.
“Not, as Premiership Rugby Limited suggests, in order to provide an additional reward to players for playing their rugby at the club.”
Saracens were also found to have breached the salary cap by £319,600.76, with regards to a £1.4m property bought by Ashton, but which Wray and another director were accused of paying 20 per cent towards.
Sport Resolutions compiled the explosive report, the details of which were broken by Sky News last night.
The suggestion was that this was a benefit and equivalent to salary in kind.
But Saracens’ defence is understood to have been that he left the club shortly after this property was bought — meaning it could not have been a benefit for playing Saracens.
There is no suggestion or evidence that any Saracens player was complicit in any of the club’s actions.
The panel, led by Lord Dyson, accepted the club’s actions were “not deliberate” and advised against relegation of Saracens.
They said: “We consider that to impose a deduction of 70 points in one salary cap year is disproportionate and is not required to satisfy the underlying purpose of the relegations.
“We accept that the breaches were not deliberate, but in our view they were reckless.”
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But the five-time English champions could not prove they could comply with the Prem salary cap this year.
This was after being found to have breached the cap for three years running — with a total overspend of £2.1m.
So they chose to be move down a rugby division, rather than open their books for a full audit.