Saracens chief resigns as club are docked 70 points
Griffiths walks out after clashing with chairman Failure to open books earns second deduction
The Saracens salary cap saga claimed another victim yesterday as Edward Griffiths resigned as interim chief executive following just 26 days in charge after tensions with chairman Neil Golding.
Griffiths’s departure comes as Premiership Rugby last night confirmed details of how Saracens would be relegated at the end of the season. Previously Saracens chief executive between 2009 and 2015, Griffiths returned to the club at the start of the year at the request of outgoing chairman Nigel Wray.
Saracens, meanwhile, have been given a 70-point deduction for failing to open their books to Premiership Rugby. The sanction adds to the 35-point deduction and £5.36 million fine for breaching Premiership Rugby’s salary cap over the previous three seasons, and will leave Saracens on -77 points, ensuring they finish bottom of the table this season.
Griffiths was given the mission of attempting to pacify furious rival clubs as well as immediately reducing the club’s wage bill to bring them in line with the £7million limit for this season.
Ultimately, he failed in both tasks as Premiership Rugby imposed automatic relegation on the English and European champions on Jan 18. However, Griffiths also clashed with Golding, the new independent chairman appointed to replace Wray. The Daily Telegraph understands Griffiths felt frustrated that he could not carry out his mandate as Golding, a partner at Freshfields law firm, took greater control of dealings with the clubs.
Saracens announced that the process to recruit a “long-term CEO” is under way. “This was always going to be a very short-term appointment, and others are well placed to drive forward the rebuilding of the club,” Griffiths said.
Perhaps Griffiths’s task was impossible to start with, such was the depth of ill-feeling towards Saracens fostered by Wray’s initial lack of contrition. Griffiths immediately attempted to strike a conciliatory note by apologising for the club’s actions and admitting that they were on course to breach the salary cap for a fourth consecutive season. The process of offloading players was also far harder than he anticipated, with the majority of Premiership clubs already spending up to the salary cap.
That was also partly because Griffiths had courted many enemies among rival executives and agents, whom he banned from working with Saracens players, during his first spell as chief executive. Few were willing to do him many favours in his hour of need.
In that respect, his initial appointment was curious, given his involvement in Saracens’ previous alleged breach of the salary cap in the 2013-14 season. As another club executive told The Telegraph yesterday: “If you were trying to show that you are turning over a new leaf, would you get someone who is whiter than white and has nothing to do with them in the past, or do you get someone who many people believe was the architect of the problem in 2015?”
Griffiths’s comment last week that other club executives are “not vultures, you are lifeboats” is understood to have been poorly received. Even now the club are struggling to arrange loan deals for players such as Ben Earl and Alex Lozowski for next season.
“Clubs sense weakness, we are offering them a one-year loan deal, but they want to sign these guys on three-year contracts,” a Saracens source said.
The revelation that Griffiths is under investigation by the English and Wales Cricket Board for acting as an unregistered cricket agent will not have helped his cause.
Premiership Rugby attempted to provide some clarity on its decision to impose automatic relegation on Saracens last night.
In applying the additional 70-point deduction, it explained that any club in breach of the salary cap by more than £350,000 can be subject to a mid-season audit by Andrew Rogers, the salary-cap manager. Failure to cooperate results in a 70-point sanction.
Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union chief executive, last night backed Premiership Rugby’s decision. “Having now reviewed the independent panel judgment, we support the views of Lord Dyson regarding Saracens’ salary cap breaches in previous seasons,” Sweeney said. “We note from the judgment there is no evidence to suggest that the players were complicit in any of the club’s actions.”