Saracens scandal may spell end of a way of rugby life

The end of an era was how Mark McCall described Saracens’ relegation to the Championship but will it also mark the end of a way of life? Will a club that has in the last 10 years based its squad around a core of English players it has either produced or signed young look to recruit from outside and minimise the financial impact of a player quickly going from a paltry wage to a substantial one after being capped by England?

Two months after protesting they had not breached the Premiership’s salary cap regulations and would appeal against the fine and loss of points, Saracens accepted they were over again this season and, given that they anticipated a not guilty verdict, took no steps to ensure they would comply this season as the leak of the 103-page report shows. Rather than wait for another hearing and the unlimited points deduction next season a panel would have had the power to impose on a repeat offender, they accepted demotion: it remains to be seen whether they receive the parachute payment of some £2m or whether it is forfeited in lieu of another fine.

Related: Saracens scandal shatters rugby union’s illusion it ever held the moral high ground | Marina Hyde

Saracens will have to break up their squad to fall within the cap next season, even though it does not apply in the Championship. According to the 57-page salary cap regulations, a promoted club must provide its declaration for spending (what in the close season it anticipates to be the wage bill) for that season and its certification (contract details of every player one month after the start of a season) for the previous campaign to show it has been operating within the cap. Does that mean there will be no quick way back for the side that eight months ago was celebrating the double?

The affair has shown the regulations are ineffective as a deterrent, which is why Premiership Rugby has launched a comprehensive review of them. At their start, whistleblowing is encouraged: players, coaches, agents, administrators and others are invited to tell the organisation’s salary cap manager if they suspect a rival is breaking the rules. He or she then launches an investigation if they “reasonably suspect a breach of the regulations”. Clubs are only encouraged to submit details of contract offers (so the salary cap manager can see if a player has accepted a lower offer) rather than obliged to.

The regulations stipulate that each club will be audited by accountants from 1 September (a date that will change with the start of the season now put back) who can investigate compliance going back five seasons. So how did Saracens get away with it for so long? And why was it that it took a newspaper investigation to expose the breaches, not Premiership Rugby? How can Saracens’ fans, and those of other clubs, be confident that no one else has been spending more than they are permitted?

“It is fair to assume that a consequence of the review into the regulations will be a far more rigorous auditing process,” said Richard Cranmer, the managing partner of Front Row Legal, which specialises in sports, media and business. “What I also suspect will happen is that CVC [the private equity company that has bought a stake in the Premiership] will pull strings behind the scenes because this affair, which is one of the most serious sporting scandals I can recall, has probably knocked rugby back 10 years, so badly has its image been tarnished.

“What Saracens did was a form of cheating and they compounded it by not sticking up their hand after a high-powered panel headed by one of the most senior legal figures in the country, and one of its best brains, found it to be guilty. Had they admitted they had broken the regulations and asked for help because they were going to be outside the cap again this season, they may have been treated sympathetically. Instead, they invited contempt and the outcome will be the break-up of a squad and several seasons of rebuilding. Those running the club at the time are responsible and they have let down not only Saracens’ players and supporters, but the game itself.”

The regulations start by stating the general principles of the cap. After ensuring the financial viability of clubs, controlling inflationary pressures and creating a level playing field comes “enabling clubs to compete in (rather than for) European competitions”. By not going bust, presumably, with French clubs and Ireland’s leading provinces having bigger playing budgets.

Saracens looked for a way to augment the salaries of their best players after losing the 2014 European Cup final to Toulon and the 2015 semi-final to Clermont Auvergne, losses which showed the need for considerable strength in depth, something they now have. The cap, which is set at £6.4m for the third successive season, before allowances, is being reviewed and may be increased with all clubs now in a position to meet it. A double irony would be if Exeter succeeded Saracens as European champions operating within the cap.

The downfall of Saracens should not be a matter of jubilation, and not just because they were not snared by those charged with overseeing the regulations. They looked to treat players as individuals rather than regard them as commodities to be offloaded once age, injury or a loss of form caught up with them with no concern about what the future held for them.

There is no question that clubs who rear players who then go on to play for England stoke their own inflationary pressures with academy salaries exploding tenfold and more once a player is capped. The choice then is to offload them or senior players on six-figure salaries. The overall effect is not to strengthen the squad and so the principle of enabling clubs to compete in Europe is compromised.

There should be greater provision for clubs who bring through England-qualified players in numbers and then see them reach the top: they should not be effectively penalised for helping the national side (and England were beneficiaries of Saracens’ sidestepping of the rules in 2017 when they won the Six Nations). Above all the regulations should be enforced in such a way that in the future when a Nigel Wray comes up with a plan to financially help players, he or she knows that it has to be cleared with Premiership Rugby first. Or else.

• This is an extract from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.