Tigers in the dock?

A belated Happy New Year one and all!

The main news to emerge during the festive period (or, as it was known to the TF household, the Omicron period) was the confirmation by Leicester Tigers that they were co-operating with Premiership Rugby regarding “historic image rights payments” which may amount to a breach of the league’s salary cap regulations.

If found guilty Leicester could face a range of sanctions, which might be considered harsh given that the alleged historic breaches appear to have occurred under a previous management regime for which the current board bear no responsibility.

Premiership Rugby, however, may have backed themselves into a corner on this one, Saracens having been fined £5.4m and deducted 105 points for their own breaches of the salary cap back in November 2019, leading to their relegation to Championship for the 2020/21 season. It is difficult to see how, therefore, having set such a precedent, Premiership Rugby could treat another club more leniently if the breaches are comparable.

I have long believed that Sarries could not have been the only club to have breached the regulations and that transgressions at other clubs were bound to emerge and no doubt the Saracens lawyers will be looking on with interest.

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was