Seven years ago, the barrister fighting the Premier League’s corner against Manchester City took down another of English sport’s super powers.
Following bombshell revelations by Daily Mail Sport in 2019, Saracens – then this country’s most dominant rugby club and the reigning English and European champions – were found guilty of breaking the Premiership salary cap, in a case led successfully by Adam Lewis KC. Now, Lewis has his sights set on City.
Saracens were mocked, fined £5.3million and relegated. They were hit with their first 35-point punishment in November 2019, after co-investments with star players such as Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola were not disclosed as part of the club’s spending.
Four days later, they had to go and play at Gloucester, whose supporters provided a glimpse of what life could be like for City after the club were found guilty of the vast majority of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League.
In their first game back after this international break, Enzo Maresca’s team enter the cauldron of Anfield – which was vitriolic enough towards visiting City sides even before they were found guilty.
At Kingsholm in 2019, Gloucester fans waved fake £50 notes and shouted ‘cheats’ at the Saracens players.
‘No one really liked Saracens before, so that went to an extreme,’ former Sarries forward Jackson Wray tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘Everything came out in the news during the November international break and a few days later we got off the bus at Kingsholm.
In 2019, Saracens – then this country’s most dominant rugby club and the reigning English and European champions – were found guilty of breaking the Premiership salary cap
Fans of rival clubs such as Gloucester took delight in sticking it to Saracens once their guilt had been uncovered
Jackson Wray (centre) stayed at the club that he joined as a 14-year-old when they went down to the Championship
‘I remember it very clearly. People were throwing Monopoly money up in the air so it fell around us. People stuck celery to caps and threw them at us.
‘We got abused on every away game but what can you do? Turn around and say, “I don’t fancy it today” or fight for the club that a lot of us had been at since we were 14 years old? We won the game in the end, which was very satisfying.’
The league’s investigation had been taking place throughout the summer of 2019 – with the bombshell findings revealed to the squad when they reconvened after that year’s World Cup in Japan. There was a sense of shock, with the initial points deduction immediately leaving the club in a battle to avoid relegation.
‘When it’s fresh and it’s new, you’re all of a sudden going, “What’s fact and what isn’t fact?”’ says Wray. ‘Anyone can have an opinion. With City, you see opinions everywhere. A lot of it is based on emotion.
‘Luckily for us, we were all in the training ground that day and speaking to the CEO directly. They won’t be knowing what’s going on and it’s a very strange situation. They’re saying, “We’re sorting it out, you may hear bits”. The Man City players are all on international break, so no one’s together. They’re hearing all sorts in the news and all sorts on X. They’re probably waiting to get back and find out what’s going on.
‘All we could do was keep playing. We weren’t sitting there wiping each other’s eyes. It’s an attritional, dangerous sport so you can’t be too preoccupied. We wanted to go out there and win and shut up the fans who were booing us when we got off the bus. We still wanted to win every weekend, win the league, fight off relegation, save people’s opinions of you.’
Then, with the club unable to meet the salary cap for the 2019-20 season, a further 70-point deduction came, to ensure once and for all that Saracens finished bottom of the table and dropped into the Championship.
‘The picture changed a bit through the season,’ says Wray. ‘We had our initial fine and points deduction and then our focus turned to, “Right, can we get enough points to stay up?”. Then another 70 points got deducted from us, so we weren’t staying up, and then you’re playing for different reasons…’
Doubling down on the points deduction placed the club’s future into graver threat. Suddenly livelihoods were at risk and world-class players were left with the predicament of how to navigate a year in the second division. In its moment of crisis, the club reappointed its former CEO Ed Griffiths to come up with a survival plan.
Maro Itoje was one of the Saracens stars who stayed for the season in the second tier
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Saracens, who lost to Cornish Pirates in week one and finished second in the Championship table before beating Ealing Trailfinders in the promotion play-off
Manchester City might find it harder to retain the likes of Elliot Anderson, Erling Haaland and Ruben Dias in their primes if they are relegated
‘I left in 2015 and came back for 26 days to try and sort it out,’ Griffiths tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘The big question was whether we appealed or not. At the time, we took a decision not to appeal. We accepted the sentence and got all the bad stuff out, meaning we could start the recovery from the Championship.
‘At the moment, City are deciding whether they accept whatever punishment comes their way or they appeal. You suspect they will appeal.
‘Fundamentally, people all asked the same question: “Am I going to get paid? Is my contract still going to be good?” We were able to assure people that they were and calm those nerves. It was unwanted and difficult but once people knew they weren’t going to be put on the street, then they were relatively calm. Everyone was paid what they were owed.
‘Beyond that, it was about dealing with each player as an individual. Some went on loan, some left, some stayed. Liam Williams went back to Wales. Will Skelton went to La Rochelle. When an organisation is in a situation like that, you have to focus on the people. Make sure each person is treated as well as possible and kept informed with clear communication.’
In 2019, the Saracens players gathered away from the club to privately discuss the future. The senior core pledged to stay and fight. The likes of Farrell, Itoje and Wray all committed to play in the second division and won immediate promotion back to the Premiership.
City might find it harder to retain the likes of Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki and Ruben Dias in their primes – even if getting back to the top flight should be a formality for a side still fighting at the top of European football.
When Juventus were forcibly relegated in the 2006 Calciopoli scandal, they lost Fabio Cannavaro, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Patrick Vieira and more to their rivals. But there are still ways that City can retain their stars.
‘The players got together down the pub or the golf club,’ said Wray. ‘We said: “This isn’t great… what are we going to do?”
‘People were at different stages of their careers. Ben Spencer was knocking on the England door and needed to play in the Prem, so he had to leave. That was really sad and emotional. Ben Earl and Max Malins were young and needed to play but didn’t want to leave Saracens, so they went on loan to Bristol.
There may still be ways for City to retain their players if they only drop down one division – young Saracens stars Ben Earl and Max Malins spent a season on loan at Bristol
Saracens won promotion back to the top flight immediately, and two seasons later were champions of England again
‘The established England boys who wanted to get picked for the Lions had the right feedback from Eddie Jones and the coaches so they stayed. I suppose if they were told: “Right, if you don’t play in the PREM then you don’t get picked,” then things might have been different.
‘I wasn’t going to turn around on the club and walk away. That’s not really in my nature. A lot of us had been playing together since we were 14. How that compares to Manchester City, I don’t really know. It’s a different team, a different sport, a different culture and it’s still not done. There are too many variables at the moment to have a direct comparison.
‘Nigel Wray (the Saracens chairman who retired after the scandal, and is no relation to Jackson) was the most caring man in the room, always there for me, never forgot the kids’ birthday. All these things matter, so we weren’t going to turn around and throw in the towel.
‘It’s hard for any club to sustain success over 20 years but now the club is back with fresh energy under Brendan Venter. We ended up coming back and reaching the final. The journey back from there was one of the proudest things I’ve been part of.’
