ON the eve of arguably the most momentous week in their 127 year history, Saracens benefactor Nigel Wray has hinted that the possible financial catastrophe which would go hand in hand with relegation from the Zurich Premiership may force him to contemplate withdrawing his unparalleled investment from the club.

Wray, the man with the deepest pockets in world rugby, has ploughed around £13 million into the club over a seven-year period in an attempt to establish Saracens as one of the leading clubs in Europe, but the business tycoon is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the state of the domestic game and the perennial underachievement of his side.

Despite a new coaching team, new chief executive and a new raft of players, Saracens have once again underperformed this season and are precariously placed just one point off the bottom.

"Relegation would be catastrophic," admitted the 53 year-old. "I think the damage would be of the order of £1.5m to £2million and it's a question of whether anyone would wish to cover that."

Asked if he would continue to bankroll the club if the grim prospect of relegation to Division One was to become a reality, Wray replied:

"Personally, no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't mind doing it with a group of people but personally no. At every club it would be a board decision if you go on or not in terms of relegation. I think it would be very difficult for any club in the First Division as a commercial proposition doesn't exist.

"Football is bad enough, but at least there is established support, but in rugby the gate would be something like 300, you would get no sponsorship and the season-ticket base would be destroyed."

Wray's continued involvement with the club he adores could hinge on a potential relegation decider at Vicarage Road on Tuesday night against Bristol Shoguns, whose owner Malcolm Pearce has already decided to cut his losses and walk away at the end of the season.

"You've seen the problem at Bristol," highlighted Wray. "Malcolm Pearce has run Bristol for the last five years and he's now now asking the question 'whose going to help me'? The answer seems to be nobody is going to help.

"Yes I do believe we'll get out of it, but to me that's not actually the problem because what about next year and the year after playing this game of Russian roulette with the threat of relegation. Because of the traditions of football everyone thinks relegation is great but if your the one spending the money then it's rather different."

The huge financial burden was softened for Wray at the back end of last season when he relinquished nearly 50 per cent of his shares to broaden the club's financial base. The new five members of the board brought a welcomed cash injection of more than £3.5 million.

"Without them I don't think I wouldn't have continued," confessed Wray, who remains the major shareholder. "The burden becomes too lonely."

Saracens' dismal run of form, which has seen them win just once since the turn of the year, has made relegation a distinct possibility. The subject of relegation strikes a raw nerve with Wray, who is one of the chief protagonists in advocating that the Premiership should be ring-fenced to enable club's to plan long term.

"It's a farcical system," explained Wray in one of his renowned tirades. "It's not a sustainable system in a game like rugby where you are are trying to create something long-term and you've only got a 12-month lease. It's an economic nonsense.

"Nobody is going to build an extension to their factory or a new kitchen in their flat if you have only got a 12-month lease. How can you go around handing players three and four year contracts with just a 12-month lease? Bristol can't find anyone to come forward to invest in them and you wonder why?

"I think relegation does create excitement but it's kind of explained by the British obsession of whose losing rather whose winning. In Australia with the Super 12 we are not all saying who is at the bottom, we are saying who is at the top.

Wray's other bone of contention is the truncated structure of the domestic season which, for example, saw Saracens play twice throughout the whole of March but sees them face two massive games in the space of five days this week.

"I call it a fractured season," said Wray, "it's not a structured season. How can you ask any business to build up a relationship with its customers, its fans, and in addition one club is going to be taken out of the room and shot dead ?

"In football you know Manchester United are not going to get relegated as they have spent 80 million on wages whereas West Brom have only spent ten. Whereas in rugby the wage cap has created an even competition so anyone can get relegated. That's what will choke off invest in the game as no-one is keen on investing money in the game on the current proposition. As a whole Premiership clubs are losing money at the moment. At Vicarage Road we need crowds of 12-15,000 for the game to become economic."

Wray, however, did not confine his stinging criticism to the state of the domestic game

"The players have dug their own graves," said Wray. "An extremely poor performance against London Irish at home left us in trouble and now we have just got to play properly against Bristol. It's always frustrating but especially so as I believe we've got a squad of players who should be performing far better than they are doing at present. If we all knew what the problem was then we'd all go round fixing it. The problem is more complicated than that.

"But the coaching staff and players can hardly look at themselves with enormous pride. There's nothing I can do about it so there's not much point in worrying about it enormously. It's up to the guys on the field."

The Men in Black begun the season amidst a wave of expectancy and optimism but once again they have flattered to deceive.

"It's been bad," confessed Wray. "We want a much greater level of consistency and commitment and see the side going forward and playing good rugby with enormous passion. And all we are seeing at the moment is a flattering, mistake-ridden season without any real progress."

Wray, however, is confident that in Mark Sinderberry, Saracens possess the man to help reverse their recent wretched fortunes.

"In Mark Sinderberry we have the perfect guy to run the club. His is the crucial role really as in any business someone has got to run it and run it well and obviously we have significantly failed to do that for a number of years."

Is Wray's desire still has as strong as ever ?

"No, it's absolutely not. I've waited seven years for the game to organise itself and the two problems that have bedevilled us from the start, relegation and the lack of structure to the season, are still here and we haven't answered the questions.

"I would be terribly reluctant to go and hopefully that won't happen. But it would have to be a board decision and we would have to see what the overall appetite was like.

"We are certainly going to lose over a million pounds this season as we have underperformed very badly. At the end of the day you have a few loyal fans but most fans want to support a winning side and were are not winning on a consistent basis."

April 25, 2003 12:30