Saracens disciplinary report to be published, says Premiership Rugby
Written by News on 22/01/2020
Premiership Rugby has confirmed the disciplinary report into Saracens’ salary cap breaches will be published, with Sarries insisting they have no objections.
It was announced last weekend that the reigning English and European champions will be relegated from the Premiership at the end of this season in response to their failure to comply with salary cap regulations for the current campaign.
They were docked 35 league points and fined £5.36m in November for breaking the salary cap in the 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, but the dossier of an investigation led by Lord Dyson into those breaches has so far not been released.
Premiership Rugby chief executive Darren Childs said on Tuesday that Saracens would need to agree for the report to be published.
Sarries chairman Neil Golding responded to that by stating they were happy for that to happen, with Premiership Rugby now beginning to set that process in motion.
“Premiership Rugby welcomes Saracens’ decision to withdraw its previous objection to publication of Lord Dyson’s decision,” they said in a statement.
“We will now begin preparations for release of the decision. Further details will be provided in the coming days.”
Addressing the Saracens official website a little earlier on Wednesday, the club’s chairman Neil Golding said: “With regards to the publication of the disciplinary panel’s full report, I am surprised by the suggestion that Saracens are objecting to the publication of the report.
“Since my appointment on January 9, I have spent considerable time in discussions with PRL [Premiership Rugby Limited] and nobody has asked me what my position is on the matter.
“To confirm, we are keen for the report to be published in full, and I made PRL aware of this earlier today. It will provide much needed context and clarity.”
Reflecting on the situation, Golding, who succeeded Nigel Wray as Saracens chairman, added: “Prior to my time here, there were discussions with PRL in relation to conducting a mid-season audit spanning several seasons.
“It would be fair to say that other PRL stakeholders were sceptical about our compliance with such an audit. We carefully considered the option of a full investigatory audit.
“However, that inevitably would have involved a long period of more financial and emotional strain, and this, in turn, meant this was not a viable option for us.
“We therefore agreed with PRL on relegation in the hope that we could draw a line under the mistakes made by Saracens with respect to compliance with the regulations and concentrate on putting our new robust procedures in place.”
(c) Sky Sports 2020: Saracens disciplinary report to be published, says Premiership Rugby
