Salford Red Devils must ‘sell players without delay’ as Super League club told to reduce salary cap | Rugby League News
Salford Red Devils have been instructed to “sell players without delay” after being issued a £1.2m viability gap 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 suffering defeat to St Helens – again, the side who will lift the trophy.
Salford were also in the grand final as recently as 2019, losing to St Helens at Old Trafford, but it was revealed on Wednesday that their squad will be split as they have been told by the RFL to reduce the club’s salary cap.
“The club has been instructed to sell the 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 sustainability cap and until we reach that we are now banned from registering players for the coming season.
“Conditions for getting promotion [Salford were given a central distribution advancement of around £500,000] were to place the club under ‘special measures’ requiring an £800,000 cut in overheads.
“We have not been given a clear timeline to align with the necessary cost reductions, therefore the club has made the decision to hold our position in the short term while negotiations with investors are ongoing.
“During that time, the club received offers for numerous players, none of whom were available for sale until today.
“Negotiations with investors continued over the weekend as part of a lengthy, rigorous process to secure the takeover of the club.
“This is still live and we are working on an acceleration, the details of which we cannot reveal due to a non-disclosure agreement.”
Such was the traffic on the Salford Red Devils website after the statement was released, the club confirmed that the website had in fact crashed.
Salford also explained how local funding cuts meant that a promised subsidy from Salford City Council last March never materialized – something the club still believed was coming when it budgeted for recruitment and pre-season.
“Negotiations with one investor fell through due to investment risk due to the absence of a confirmed position from the council on when the purchase of the stadium would be finalized – an example of the delicate negotiating position we are in,” added Salford.
“In March, Salford City Council proposed that the club could receive a subsidy to control rugby league and develop rugby in the city of Salford and Greater Manchester.
“In November, Salford City Council was informed that the Subsidy Control Grant was not available due to a lack of funding elsewhere, the effect of which was that the club had already allocated funds to recruit players and staff and pay for pre-season preparations, including a warm weather camp in Portugal.
“Those foreseen funds were actually already allocated.
“We believe that we acted in the best interest of the club, the players, the staff and our fans, given the complex situation we are in with the multiple dynamics at play.
“We sympathize and understand the frustration of our fans and are deeply sorry to be put in 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 takeover process to secure investment as soon as possible, while now simultaneously selling players to meet RL commercial regulations.”
Salford travel to St Helens for their Super League season opener on February 15, live Sky Sports.
Super League 2025 – key dates and what to pay attention to
March 1: Wigan Warriors v Warrington Wolves in Las Vegas
17.-19. April: 8th round – rival round
3.-4. May: Magic Round (St James’ Park, Newcastle)
July 24: August 31 – round 20 – divided into two weekends
4.-7. September: 25th round – Rivals reverse schedules
18.-21. September: Round 27 – the last round of the regular season (dates and time will be determined later)
26.-27. September: Elimination playoffs
3.-4. October: Semi-final
Saturday, October 11: Grand Final (Old Trafford)
Sky Sports will once again show every Super League game live this season – including two games in each round exclusively live, while the remaining four games each week are shown on Sky Sports+.
