A sad end for the Sarries

Bruced

Saracens' Mako Vunipola

The Saracens and their Salary Cap Breach

The reigning Premiership Rugby champions the Saracens have been a dominant force winning four of the last five Premiership titles, but following news of salary cap breaches at the club it seems their long reign is over, as the club and players will suffer the consequences of the breach.

The immediate action that has been taken had been to deduct 105 points from their current premiership standing and also fine the club £5.4 million for breaching the cap over the past three seasons. This will push the Premiership club into the Championship league next season – but much of this choice in some part had been voluntary. The club had been given two choices – to open their books for a full audit so that a closer look can be taken at just how much the club had breached the gap, or take the relegation to the championship – by accepting the latter, it made it extremely clear what had been done.

This does bring up some interesting times for punters who use online European casinos, however, as it has led to a big shake up for the league – with the Sarries being so dominant they would remain the betting favourites but with their removal from the Premiership it opens up the opportunity for others to take their place. In fact, during the current lull in sporting events, many have been turning to other betting alternatives as many of the best European casinos are accepting players from EU to participate in their services whilst the betting sector heads toward recovery as sporting events begin to return. And that includes Rugby, but the good news is there are signs that things are returning to some semblance of normalcy.

What next?

Although punishment has been issued, there are many that feel more could’ve been done – Tony Rowe, the chief exec of the Exeter Chiefs is still bitter following their loss in the finals last year about how long it had taken the games authorities to act upon what had been suspected – “Everybody has had their suspicions for a long time. Five years ago they were hauled over the coals for similar offences. We just want a level playing field. Every club just wants the same opportunity and chances and let’s hope we get back to that.”

There are also questions being raised around some of the star names at the club – although there has been confirmation that teams playing at the Championship level will still be eligible to play in the national squad, but the constraints and the fact the team will no longer be playing at the elite level will lead to these stars no doubt looking for a new home. So far, the full-back Liam Williams has already found a new home as he had set to be heading out at the end of the season anyway with Matt Gallagher and Joe Gray also finding new homes too, with others going on loan and some announcing they plan to stay.

The club had also issued a number of statements regarding their actions and the plans moving forward – “Our goal is to rebuild confidence and trust. We have accepted the unprecedented measure of automatic relegation from the Premiership at the end of the 2019-2020 season. The board must embody the values of the club, learn from its mistakes so the club can come back stronger. It is in the wider interests of the Premiership and English rugby to take this decisive step, to ensure everybody is able once again to focus on the game of rugby, which we all love.”

It’ll be a long climb back for the club and losing many of the star players will make it extremely difficult, and although Exeter Chiefs exec Tony Rowe stated “Let’s be very honest about this before people have sympathy with Saracens” a lot of lives will have changed because of this, especially as we continue to move through the current pandemic, many players will be facing some tough challenges ahead.

For the current rugby season there’s still a few games left to be played out before a new champion is crowned – the Exeter Chiefs current sit 5 points clear at the top above the Sale Sharks who play their next game on August 14th and with the finals not set to be played until October there’s a possibility for a close running at the top.

It had also been announced in the UK that the fans may be able to start attending sporting events in October, which means despite the ongoing pandemic and struggles being faced across other sporting events we may see a Premiership Rugby final with a live crowd and perhaps the first big event that will be packed with fans once again, with the final being schedule for the end of October on the 24th it’s expected a little at this point that the big changes will be in place ready for this.

 

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