A fire sale of Salford Red Devils players will begin now, with the club finally breaking their silence on their latest financial plight. The financially stricken Super League club has confirmed that they must make significant cuts to their salary cap spend as per the enhanced special measures they are currently under.

When Salford were granted a central funding advancement of £500,000, it came with conditions. Most pressingly, financial regulators were brought in to assess the health of the club and the recommendation was that they should cut their spending by around £800,000.

Until now, that has not been forced upon Salford, with the club desperately trying to secure a takeover of the club that would provide the investment required that would alleviate their latest crisis. But that hasn't materialised and it has now been decided that enough is enough, with the club now left with no choice but to scale back.

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In a club statement, Salford said: “ Over recent months, there has been repeated media speculation on the Club's financial position. We have purposefully maintained a level of silence since our last statement, not out of avoidance, but out of necessity due to the sensitive nature of our ongoing discussions with potential investors.

"Our discretion has been to maintain and ensure the integrity of those discussions, bound by Non-Disclosure Agreements, and to protect our Club, players and staff.

"As the position stands, contrary to what has been reported, investor negotiations continued over the weekend as part of the lengthy, rigorous process to secure a takeover for the club.

“This is still live and we are working to expediate, details of which we can’t disclose given the Non-Disclosure Agreement in place. However, the club has been directed to sell players without delay; the position is the RFL have issued a sustainability cap of £1.2 million and until we reach that, we are now prohibited from registering players for the upcoming season.

“Our focus remains in working to explore all avenues possible for the long-term stability and success of Salford Red Devils. Immediate next steps are to continue the potential takeover process to secure investment as soon as possible, whilst now simultaneously selling players to meet RL Commercial regulations.

“The terms of receiving the advancement were that the club be placed under ‘special measures’ requiring a reduction in overheads of £800,000.

“We were not given a clear timeline for compliance on required expenditure reductions, therefore the club took the decision to hold our position for the short-term while investor negotiations are ongoing. During this time the club has received offers for a number of players, none of whom have been available for sale until today.”

Explaining how they have found themselves in this position, the statement explained how a subsidy control grant was a big part of the issue.

“In March 24 it was suggested by Salford City Council the club could receive a subsidy control grant to support rugby league and the rugby development pathway in the City of Salford and Greater Manchester. This is akin to other Salford community entities who have received similar funding i.e. The Lowry and RHS Bridgewater.

“The club were notified in July 24 of a delay and again in September 24 with a further delay until November 24, again impacting financial forecasting.

“In November 24, Salford City Council advised that the subsidy control grant was not available due to funding shortfalls elsewhere, the impact of which was that the club had already committed funds to player and staff recruitment and paid for pre-season preparations including a warm weather camp in Portugal.

“Effectively, these projected funds had already been allocated.”

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