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Sponsorship expert's stark warning for 'toxic' Saracens

Allianz have been a sponsor at Saracens since 2012 (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

A sponsorship expert has warned Saracens that they face two years of pain as a “toxic” brand after accepting a 35-point deduction and £5.3million fine for breaching the Gallagher Premiership salary cap.

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Owner Nigel Wray – who has funded the club for 25 years – has confirmed he will not be walking away from the English and European champions despite having to pay the fine and costs which have yet to be revealed.

However, the damage to Saracens’ reputation caused by the salary cap crisis could seriously hamper attempts to attract a new investor.

Ever since the 2018 departure of joint owner Johann Rupert, a South African billionaire, Wray has been in talks to find a joint investor to share the financial burden at a club that has personally cost him more than £50m during his period in charge.

Now, attracting a new investor has suddenly become much harder thanks to the salary cap controversy.

(Continue reading below…)

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Sponsorship industry expert Nigel Currie, a former joint chairman of the European Sponsorship Association, told RugbyPass: “Saracens have become a toxic brand and only time can get them back to where they want to be.

“It’s similar to Rangers in Scottish football who dropped down after breaking various rules. You just have to rebuild and for clubs wanting instant success, it is pretty bad news.

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“There is a danger that Saracens could get relegated from the Premiership and the damage over the next two years will be pretty bad. 

“Holding onto their players and their sponsors during that period is the key thing, but having someone like Nigel Wray there is important because you don’t make money out of Premiership rugby at the moment. 

“It’s tough and now a lot a tougher for Saracens and I don’t know if their club sponsor Allianz have some kind of embarrassment clause in their contract.”

Now 26 points adrift at the bottom of the Premiership, Saracens have started building a new west stand at their Allianz Stadium home thanks to a £22.9 million loan from the London Borough of Barnet after Wray and Rupert jointly funded the east stand which cost £20m to erect. 

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Worryingly for Saracens, Allianz, the club’s main sponsor since 2012 who have a deal through to 2021, are seeking assurances from Saracens over their future conduct.

In a statement, the company said: “Allianz is a long-time sponsor but is not a member of any executive or supervisory boards of Saracens. 

“At Allianz we act with transparency and integrity and living up to these high standards is very important to us. We will be holding discussions with the club to confirm this shared understanding and commitment going forward.”

In a bid to bring some stability to the situation, Wray issued a statement outlining the way forward for the club. He also confirmed he will be staying at the helm despite his own decision to launch joint ventures with leading players having led to the current problems.

Wray said: “We will shortly introduce robust independent governance measures acceptable to all, including the appointment to the Saracens board of a director who will oversee a new governance regime. 

“I will continue as always to support the club financially going forwards to ensure there is no financial instability or uncertainty.”

WATCH: Episode two of The Season with Hamilton Boys’ High School – training ramps up a gear as the team hits the gym after the recent victory against Auckland Grammar

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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