I’ve been waiting to write a post discussing the worrying goings-on at Salford over the last week. I thought it best to let it reach a natural end so I can report on and opine over the whole saga rather than in separate chunks, and since everything has seemed to reach something of a conclusion, here we are.

For those not in the know, around Wednesday or Thursday last week, reports began to emerge that Salford Red Devils were facing financial difficulties. They were, according to reports (two club statements on the situation will be linked to in the sources at the bottom of the page), requesting an advance of £500k on their central funding to help them through their preseason. Representatives of the other eleven Super League sides met to discuss the situation, and agree a way forward. No conclusions were reached then, and a follow-up was scheduled for Monday, which was cancelled as the clubs passed the situation onto the RFL to deal with, which they did by granting the advance with caveats attached, which will be discussed later in this article.

I have no doubt that what has been happening at Salford is not an isolated incident, many clubs at all levels will be struggling to make ends meet right now. In fact, on the day I’m writing this, there are reports that Championship side Toulouse may lose some of their local funding, making their situation quite perilous also, this, I believe is indicative of the lack of funding being put into the sport as a whole.

I think back to a few years ago,m when thinking on this issue, when the RFL & Super League first partnered with IMG, ostensibly in order to improve the sports reach and its bottom-line. We may only be two years into a twelve-year agreement, but you couldn’t say that their efforts so far have been successful. One only has to look to the new broadcasting deal struck with Sky before this past season to see how little the people in charge of the sport value it, as Sky walked away from the negotiations with more content for less money, a boon for Sky, but a shot in the foot for rugby league. We were led to believe there was interest elsewhere for the broadcasting rights, some for potentially more money, so why stick with Sky? Especially when they’ve proven time and time again that rugby league is an afterthought to them?

It’s not just Sky, of course, there are many factors that lead to a club facining financial peril. Lack of internal investment could be a factor, as could lack of fan engagement, Salford ranked tenth out of the twelve Super League clubs for average attendance during the 2024 season, averaging just 4,646 at games. It just isn’t sustainable to keep ploughing money into a club if that sort of average is your return on investment.

What makes things especially desperate for the Red Devils is how close they are to being outside the twelve in the IMG rankings. Despite their fourth-placed finish last season, they found themselves twelfth in the rankings, with only a whiskers-breadth between them and thirteenth-placed Toulouse. If this request for an advance adversely affects their rating as some fear, that could spell the end for the good ship Salford, as I fear that the club would not survive relegation to the second tier.

For their part, the club has pointed towards the drawn-out saga of their stadium sale for their shortfall, as well as looking for further investment opportunities, trumpeting their new front-of-shirt sponsorship deal in the club’s second statement as a step forward for the club and their revenue streams. I do sympathise with the club, and its CEO, Paul King, as they are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to investment into the club. When even successful clubs like Wigan are posting losses¹ in their accounts with the backers they have, what chance do Salford have?

This whole episode is a bloody nose on the face of a sport which is trying to revamp its image and appeal to a new audience. This year alone has seen crises envelope Whitehaven and Halifax in the Championship, with the former having to field just fourteen players for one game because they hadn’t paid their players, now Salford, the fourth-highest finishers last season, have to ask the people running the sport for money because they can’t make ends meet. It all serves to makes the game look small-time, and like a bad investment for any potential money-men who may be looking at buying-in to a club soon.

Hopefully, Salford will be able to turn things around with this injection of cash, but thinking in the long-term for a minute, let’s assume that the stadium sale that has been the root of their issues drags on into next season, when their advance has run out and the central distribution will be lower because they took the money out, and because of their positioning in the rankings, what will happen when their money pot runs dry then? What if, as suggested, this situation has a knock-on effect on their ranking, causing them to drop a few precious places, losing their Super League berth entirely? It would surely be the death of Salford, and I can already sense the vultures circling.

Sources: Salford Club Statement 1 (https://salfordreddevils.net/club-statement-21-11-24/), Salford Club Statement 2 (https://salfordreddevils.net/club-statement-25-11/), Average Attendance Figures article (https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/every-super-league-clubs-average-attendance-in-2024)

1. Wigan posted an operating loss of £1,637k in their most recent accounts, up from £1,154k the year previously. (Figures obtained from account returns on Companies House) ↩︎