Salford Red Devils must ‘sell players without delay’ as Super League side cut salary cap | Rugby League News
Salford Red Devils have been ordered to “sell players without delay” after being slapped with a £1.2m sustainability cap by the Rugby Football League.
The Super League club finished fourth in the table last season before losing to eventual champions Wigan Warriors in the play-offs and reached the semi-finals in 2022 before losing to St Helens – again, the team who would lift the trophy.
Salford have only been in a Grand Final in 2019, losing to St Helens at Old Trafford, but revealed on Wednesday their squad will be cut after being told to lower the club’s salary cap by the RFL.
“The club has been instructed to sell players without delay,” the club said in a statement labeled “the truth behind the rumours”.
“The position is that the RFL has issued a £1.2m viability cap and until we reach that we are now prohibited from signing players for the upcoming season.
“The terms of receiving the advance (Salford received a central distribution advance of around £500,000) were that the club would be placed under ‘special measures’ which required a reduction in overheads of £800,000.
“We have not been given a clear timetable for complying with the required cost reductions, so the club has taken the decision to maintain our position in the short term while negotiations with investors continue.
“During this period, the club has received offers for a number of players, none of whom have been available for sale to date.
“Negotiations with investors continued over the weekend as part of the long, rigorous process to secure the takeover of the club.
“This is still live and we are working to expedite, details of which we cannot disclose given the non-disclosure agreement in place.”
Such was the volume of traffic on the Salford Red Devils website after the statement was published, the club confirmed that the website had indeed gone down.
Salford also explained how local funding cuts led to the promised subsidy from Salford City Council last March – something the club still thought was coming in when committing funds to pre-season recruitment and training.
“An investor negotiation collapsed due to the investment risk that there would be no confirmed position from the council on when the acquisition of the stadium would be finalized – an example of the delicate negotiating position we are in,” Salford added.
RFL instruct Salford to drop salary cap to £1.2m
“In March, it was proposed by Salford City Council that the club could receive a grant-in-aid to support rugby league and the growth path of rugby in Salford City and Greater Manchester.
“In November, Salford City Council advised that the Subsidy Review Grant was not available due to funding shortfalls elsewhere, the impact of which was that the club had already committed funds to recruit players and staff and paid for preparations prior to the season, including hot weather. camp in Portugal.
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“Essentially, these earmarked funds had already been allocated.
“We believe we have acted in the best interests of our club, players, staff and fans given the complex situation we find ourselves in with multiple dynamics at play.
“We empathize with and understand the frustration of our fans and are deeply sorry to come to this position.
“Our focus remains on working to explore all possible avenues for the long-term stability and success of Salford Red Devils.
“The immediate next steps are to continue the potential acquisition process to secure investment as soon as possible, while players will now be sold to meet RL commercial regulations.”
Salford travel to St Helens for their Super League season opener on February 15, live Sky Sports.
2025 Super League – key dates and what to look out for
March 1: Wigan Warriors vs Warrington Wolves in Las Vegas
April 17-19: Round 8 – Opponents Round
May 3-4: Magic Round (St James’ Park, Newcastle)
July 24: August 31 – Round 20 – split round over two weekends
September 4-7: Round 25 – Opponents Round matches reversed
September 18-21: Round 27 – final round of regular season (dates and times tbc)
September 26-27: Play-Off exclusion
October 3-4: Semifinals
Saturday October 11: Grand Final (Old Trafford)
Sky Sports will again show every Super League game live this season – including two games in each round exclusively live, with the remaining four games each week shown on Sky Sports+.
2025-01-15 19:21:00
