Photo: VCG

English and European champions Saracens have been docked 35 points and fined over 5 million pounds ($6.5 million) for breaching the Premiership Rugby salary cap over several seasons, Premiership Rugby announced on Tuesday.

Saracens - who provided nine of the England squad including captain Owen Farrell that reached last Saturday's Rugby World Cup final - had been subject to a nine-month investigation.

Following a five-day hearing in September and October, an independent three-man panel, headed by a distinguished former judge, adjudicated that they had indeed contravened the salary cap which is set at 7 million pounds a year.

"The decision of the Independent Panel is that Saracens Rugby Club failed to disclose payments to players in each of the seasons 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19," read a statement from Premiership Rugby.

"In addition, the club is found to have exceeded the ceiling for payments to senior players in each of the three seasons. The Panel therefore upheld all of the charges.

"The sanction that has been imposed on Saracens Rugby Club by the panel is: a total fine of 5,360,272.31 pounds and a total deduction of 35 league points." 

Saracens who topped the Premiership table last season with 78 points - before going on to beat Exeter in the final will begin the fourth round of matches on -26 points.

Newcastle Falcons finished bottom last season with 31.

Saracens have dominated domestic and to a certain extent European rugby in the past decade winning the Premiership five times and the European trophy on three occasions.

Their squad reads like a who's who of English rugby with Farrell, Maro Itoje and Jamie George to name but three whilst they also have other World Cup stars in Wales's Liam Williams and Scotland's Duncan Taylor. Tuesday's judgment will bring huge pressure on the club to be able to retain some of those stars.