TRP plus

[Rossm]

Certainly makes Ford and Genge leaving in such a successful run a bit more understandable, if there is indeed anything going on,

[MarleyWasp]

Leicester statement:

Leicester Tigers are aware of allegations made against the club regarding historic image rights payments.

The club is cooperating with Premiership Rugby, who are looking into the historic matter, and has met with representatives from Premiership Rugby to discuss the claims.

Leicester Tigers will make no further comment while the matter remains ongoing.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

The problem for the authorities in this investigation is not so much the application of funds (to the players or other related parties), but the source of said funds. Assuming the players never turned up for the events, etc. and that it was all faked, that money had to come from somewhere.

Very convenient that the company has gone in to liquidation, but its records should still exist. The Liquidator might be required to hand those records over (or the Official Receiver might get involved, and if the liquidator forced that to happen by not cooperating, they would likely face a massive fine and loss of licence). It is possible that the current management of the club does not know of the source of those funds, but I seriously doubt that. We could see Tigers going down the Sarries route of refusing to open up all of its 'books' (so as not to implicate the persons actually at the heart of it all).

This type of investigation almost always happens as a result of a whistle blower. It won't be the Liquidator, who would have wanted to do as little work as possible for their (likely enormous) fees. It could be a worked in the liquidator's team though. A rugby fan of a different team, who saw the transactions, likely could have copied the pertinent files) and who may well have moved on to a new job. They may well have raised the transactions to the Liquidator, who chose not to pursue it.

All conjecture. This will not end well for Tigers. I doubt they self reported it, and it will be for a lot of money. No wonder the owner was trying to sell the club. Sleeping dogs tend to wake up.

[Neils]

Now in Mail -

Premiership Rugby launch probe into Leicester Tigers https://mol.im/a/10349931 via https://dailym.ai/android

[Neils]

And the Beeb where Laura Scott now reports -

Leicester Tigers: Premiership investigating historic image rights allegations - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/59809659

[backdoc]

Good summary, NWW

A relative used to work at an accountancy firm that dealt with the owner of the previously punished club. She knows where the bodies lie, and the sums of money involved are extraordinary. This predated the recent investigations/fines etc. It was simply Mr X's company paying 6/7 figure sums from one of his property companies directly to the player, usually as a signing on fee.

[Neils]

If I remember correctly was there not a bunch of unhappy players when asked to reduce salaries about a year ago. Could one of them be a whistle-blower (one unhappy bunny was ex this parish).

[MarleyWasp]

Given the sheer number of players who have departed Welford Road in the last two years the list of potential whistle blowers could be quite lengthy. It's somewhat ironic that this appears to date back to Leicester's worst few years.

[Rossm]

Certainly makes Ford and Genge leaving in such a successful run a bit more understandable, if there is indeed anything going on,

Maybe they didn't fancy a spell playing in the Championship🤣

[Shugs]

Obviously this is still just an allegation. If correct it’s certainly not an error of the accounting type or mis-calculating credits which is poor but partially understandable. I can’t see therefore how the punishment could be different to Sarries unless Tigers open up the books.To be honest it’s another blow for the integrity of the game with the minuscule compensation that Tigers didn’t win anything from it (thereby denying others). Still to be proven so we’ll have to wait and see but unfortunately mud sticks so some damage is already done.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

If these allegations are true, it’s rather convenient that they have surfaced this year when there’s no relegation. 

+ I agrée with Shugs, it’s hard to believe something like this isn’t an honest mistake when dealing with Byzantine salary cap regulations.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Obviously this is still just an allegation.

For it to have gotten this far, it is far from an allegation. The issue will be that Tigers have not immediately fessed up to the totality of it, which means they are hiding something, and know it is not to be found in the official 'books'.

No player wants to stick their hand up and say, 'It was me wot got £xxx,xxx, and I know these players also did ...'

To do that is to end their career, and the careers of the others, including any who have retired in to public roles, plus the tax implications if they didn't declare it all. So, Tigers have known for some time (had the 'nod') that they were under scrutiny, and had time to hide the obvious stuff. It will go down the same route as the Sarries thing did, but this time round the punishment will be far harsher. After a few months the Prem will announce they have found £xx m of irregularities relating to a certain year, and fine Tigers a huge amount and take 50 points off them.

Then, a month or so later, they will announce further allegations, because Tigers will not admit to anything. They will keep quite. They will protest, just as Sarries did, the unfairness of it all.

And so they Prem will ask them for the 'real' books, which Tigers will refuse to provide. And then, without relegation, what will the Prem do? They cannot let Tigers get away with it, and must be seen to be 'fair' to Sarries.

Permanent exclusion from the RFU? Possibly. It depends how Tigers play it. Damned if they do truly reveal all, and likely damned if they don't.

[andermt]

Remember that the relegation wasn't the punishment for carries, the points deduction was, the deduction was deliberately sufficient to ensure relegation.

With there being no relegation they could just get the points reduction which would make them last and with no relegation they could effectively get away with it, other than losing what is a great run for them finally.

You can imagine Sarries not being very happy with that. but with there being no relegation from the premiership I don't see how there can be any other outcome. Anything else would be a massive departure from the previously agreed rules for the next few years.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Remember that the relegation wasn't the punishment for carries, the points deduction was, the deduction was deliberately sufficient to ensure relegation.

With there being no relegation they could just get the points reduction which would make them last and with no relegation they could effectively get away with it, other than losing what is a great run for them finally.

You can imagine Sarries not being very happy with that. but with there being no relegation from the premiership I don't see how there can be any other outcome. Anything else would be a massive departure from the previously agreed rules for the next few years.

Yes, and that lack of effective 'punishment' would be a huge blow to the game. I guess they could give them a huge points loss for two years running.

The problem is that the rules are controlled by the same clubs who are the miscreants. Poacher and gamekeeper both. The teams may have to agree to give up their veto. How many other clubs have such skeletons in their closets? Look for clubs voting against a change in sanctions or voting rights/rules. Ones who have overly rich benefactors (or did have). Like Bristol and Sale.

[welsh wasp]

To return to Fekitoa. He came here after an unhappy spell at Toulon so would he be rather concerned about returning to France?