The English international pillar Mako Vunipola assumed the financial arrangements put in place with the owner of his club Saracens to circumvent the salary ceiling and which precipitated the fall of the club condemned to relegation at the end of the season.
"If I had the choice to do it again, I would do it again even knowing what happened," the player told reporters after training with the squad. To be able to attract many stars to his team, the owner of the club, and at the time its president, Nigel Wray, had founded joint ventures with certain players.
He had thus injected 450,000 pounds (542,000 euros) in a company with Mako and his brother Billy Vunipola, third line of Saracens and England, for real estate investments. But these arrangements, spread over several years with different stars of the club, were later considered by an independent commission as disguised remuneration and a way to circumvent the salary ceiling of 7 million pounds (8.4 million euros) .
Saracens resigned to a new penalty and relegation https://t.co/9G6viqFute
- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) January 18, 2020Vunipola questions its future
These accounting manipulations earned the London suburban club a mandatory relegation at the end of the season and a fine of more than 6 million euros. "That doesn't mean that I don't care what happened to the club," defended Vunipola, "but most of all I know that rugby is important and our careers are short and I want to be a little far-sighted. "
None of the players involved in these arrangements were sanctioned and the pillar assured that he had "not the slightest idea" that they would be considered irregular. Asked about his future and if he was going to imitate the hooker Jamie George who promised to stay with the Sarries even in Championship (D2), Vunipola kicked in touch. "Right now, I know absolutely nothing about it. Some things have to happen before I can say for certain if I stay. ”
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