Sports Resolutions have published the details of their decision to fine and dock points from Salford Red Devils after the club was ruled to have breached Super League salary cap rules.
The 2016 season was going well until chairman Dr Koukash had to notify his players they were under investigation by the RFL.
It was suspected the club had paid their players more than the allowed ceiling of £1.825 million.
A written statement tells the full story, saying the punishment awarded to Salford would have been more severe had it not been for the fact: “The Tribunal was obviously impressed with Dr Koukash and the fact that he has learned much from this experience.”
The tribunal also stated that Koukash has ‘set the club on the right track’ to avoid a repetition of an instance like this happening again.
In 2014 Salford paid up to £1,919,200 over the course of 109 days, nearly £100,000 over the limit.
£70,000 went from a Koukash subsidiary to two players, for ‘leadership training’.
Salford did breach the salary cap for 2014, but not by a large amount, so their appeal was dismissed.
The RFL also had their appeal dismissed to increase the penalty to eight points and to spread it over to the Super 8s stage of this year’s Super League.
After months of chest-beating by both Koukash and the RFL, we now know in absolute detail both side’s cases.
What we know now about financial details
It should come to no surprise that when both sides were arguing their versions of events were the absolute truth, that the verdict falls somewhere in between.
What can safely be said by the publishing of the case, is that the salary cap breach was not down to player recruitment by Salford Red Devils.
The RFL’s case to the initial tribunal was brought about through the following points.
– Tony Puletua received £48,000 through one of Koukash subsidiaries rather than the club itself which was listed as ‘provision of leadership training services’.
– Francis Meli received £22,000 for the same reasons.
– Payment of Lama Tasi’s £900 p/m rent for the 2014 season.
– Payment of Theo Fages’ rent for 2014 season to the tune of £7,500 p/a.
– Niall Evalds received a gift of a Maserati car after being voted players’ player of the season to the value of £16,000
This expenditure pushed Salford’s 2014 salary up to £1,919,200 for 109 days; almost £100k more than the £1.825 million in place at the time.
Salford breached C1.1.7 of the operations rules by not declaring all financial benefits in kind; C1.1.15 that a club should not issue payments or provide benefits unless accurately recorded in the player’s’ contract; and the club was in breach of salary cap regulation 3.1.3, that any information required must be accurate, which it was not; the initial tribunal also found Koukash himself in breach of these regulations.
Short term embarrassment for Salford, long term questions for the RFL
When this case was first brought against Salford, Koukash said ‘he would go to any court in the land’ to fight this case, he has since been to one of those courts, which has ruled against him.
It is quite surprising to learn from the report then, that Salford only wanted this appeal in review only, which denied both sides the ability to provide new evidence; something we now know the RFL had.
We will never know what this evidence was now. However, it sheds a humbling light on the Red Devils that they come out swinging in press conferences, but take a more cautious approach in the courtroom.
The Red Devils after getting an appeal by review, then tried to present new evidence themselves that showed that even with the additional payments, there was headroom between their salary and the limit.
It’s little wonder the relationship between the two is so tense.
Dr Koukash said didn’t know about the salary cap regulations in detail to such an extent he appealed ignorance.
It would be surprising that a man of such business acumen would not read (or have someone read on his behalf) the fine print behind the most restrictive part of the RFL’s game.
Despite this though the RFL shouldn’t escape blame, and in the long term, this case will probably shine a more negative light on them as opposed to Koukash.
It brings into disrepute what the RFL does to educate owners of the regulations before buying a club, and also the salary cap itself in its current form.
Whilst it is understandable that all financial intensives should be on a players contact, a salary cap is designed to stop teams buying the league and therefore control the caliber of players a team can have on the pitch.
Did any of these breeches make the players in question a higher calibre? Was Niall Evalds playing better because he had a sports car bought for him; or Theo Fages because his rent was being payed by the club?
Furthermore, why did it take a leaked email from one disgruntled chairman for this to come to light, this surely should have been noticed with the ‘live cap’ or investigated by the RFL themselves, rather than the governing body been thrown a bone by one of the other clubs to chase.
Koukash has said himself he was not trying to deceive the RFL so if they had their suspicions, why did they not act on them at the end of the 2014 season.
If the RFL genuinely believed at the time Salford breached salary cap regulations, this should have been dealt with before the start of the 2015 season, rather than take almost 18 months to come to light.
For Salford, it draws a line in the sand on the issue, the club now has to move on and focus on retaining its Super League status.
For the RFL however, questions need to be asked about its competence, especially with the salary cap, in order to prevent the giant games of he said she said from occurring in the future.
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It should come to no surprise that when both sides were arguing their versions of events were the absolute truth, that the verdict falls somewhere in between.
What can safely be said by the publishing of the case, is that the salary cap breach was not down to player recruitment by Salford Red Devils.
The RFL’s case to the initial tribunal was brought about through the following points.
– Tony Puletua received £48,000 through one of Koukash subsidiaries rather than the club itself which was listed as ‘provision of leadership training services’.
– Francis Meli received £22,000 for the same reasons.
– Payment of Lama Tasi’s £900 p/m rent for the 2014 season.
– Payment of Theo Fages’ rent for 2014 season to the tune of £7,500 p/a.
– Niall Evalds received a gift of a Maserati car after being voted players’ player of the season to the value of £16,000
This expenditure pushed Salford’s 2014 salary up to £1,919,200 for 109 days; almost £100k more than the £1.825 million in place at the time.
Salford breached C1.1.7 of the operations rules by not declaring all financial benefits in kind; C1.1.15 that a club should not issue payments or provide benefits unless accurately recorded in the player’s’ contract; and the club was in breach of salary cap regulation 3.1.3, that any information required must be accurate, which it was not; the initial tribunal also found Koukash himself in breach of these regulations.
Short term embarrassment for Salford, long term questions for the RFL
When this case was first brought against Salford, Koukash said ‘he would go to any court in the land’ to fight this case, he has since been to one of those courts, which has ruled against him.
It is quite surprising to learn from the report then, that Salford only wanted this appeal in review only, which denied both sides the ability to provide new evidence; something we now know the RFL had.
We will never know what this evidence was now. However, it sheds a humbling light on the Red Devils that they come out swinging in press conferences, but take a more cautious approach in the courtroom.
The Red Devils after getting an appeal by review, then tried to present new evidence themselves that showed that even with the additional payments, there was headroom between their salary and the limit.
It’s little wonder the relationship between the two is so tense.
Dr Koukash said didn’t know about the salary cap regulations in detail to such an extent he appealed ignorance.
It would be surprising that a man of such business acumen would not read (or have someone read on his behalf) the fine print behind the most restrictive part of the RFL’s game.
Despite this though the RFL shouldn’t escape blame, and in the long term, this case will probably shine a more negative light on them as opposed to Koukash.
It brings into disrepute what the RFL does to educate owners of the regulations before buying a club, and also the salary cap itself in its current form.
Whilst it is understandable that all financial intensives should be on a players contact, a salary cap is designed to stop teams buying the league and therefore control the caliber of players a team can have on the pitch.
Did any of these breeches make the players in question a higher calibre? Was Niall Evalds playing better because he had a sports car bought for him; or Theo Fages because his rent was being payed by the club?
Furthermore, why did it take a leaked email from one disgruntled chairman for this to come to light, this surely should have been noticed with the ‘live cap’ or investigated by the RFL themselves, rather than the governing body been thrown a bone by one of the other clubs to chase.
Koukash has said himself he was not trying to deceive the RFL so if they had their suspicions, why did they not act on them at the end of the 2014 season.
If the RFL genuinely believed at the time Salford breached salary cap regulations, this should have been dealt with before the start of the 2015 season, rather than take almost 18 months to come to light.
For Salford, it draws a line in the sand on the issue, the club now has to move on and focus on retaining its Super League status.
For the RFL however, questions need to be asked about its competence, especially with the salary cap, in order to prevent the giant games of he said she said from occurring in the future.
