Maverick Salford Red Devils owner Marwan Koukash has come out fighting after being accused by the RFL of breaching the sport’s £1.825m salary cap.
In a press conference at the AJ Bell Stadium this morning, Dr Koukash said his club were being “made scapegoats” by the sport’s governing body.
He denied the allegations, saying: “We have a very young team that are playing very well. We are way below the salary cap.”
The charges were brought after a letter from Bradford Bulls chairman Marc Green was leaked to League Express.
It raised serious concerns about Salford’s dealings with the salary cap.
But Koukash said former Salford players were “strongarmed” by the RFL to come forward with allegations against the club.
Tony Puleta, who joined Salford from St Helens ahead of the 2014 season, launched legal action against the Red Devils after quitting the side.
Kevin Locke resigned from the AJ Bell in June 2015 after alleging Salford had failed to pay his wages.
When Koukash took over Salford in 2013 – a move that came with £3m of debt from the previous administration – he lobbied hard to raise the salary cap so he could pack his squad with big name players.
He said today he believes multiple former Salford players at other clubs were approached by the RFL in last year’s salary cap audit.
If Salford are found to have paid more than £1.825m in salaries over the last two years they could face a 20-point reduction, which would effectively end their drive for the Super League this year.
Just a big misunderstanding?
Koukash said Salford Red Devils have not received any information from the RFL about what exactly is being investigated.
But he went into detail about a couple of incidents he believes are under scrutiny.
The first is in relation to a car purchased as a gift by Koukash to Niall Evalds after the player won the team’s Player of the Season award.
Koukash doesn’t believe that this is relevant to a salary cap breach.
“It’s something done after the end of the season, literally at the end of the Hull KR game that’s when I went and gave him (Evalds).
“Just to make sure we were playing it by the book I approached the RFL and said ‘do we need to include this in the salary cap?’.
“They [the RFL] came back and said ‘yes’ I said ‘which year is it included 2015 or 2016’? and they said ‘2015’ so we included it and we are still getting charged it does not make any sense”.
The second was in regards to an undisclosed rent payment to an unnamed youth player, which although was dealt with before the start of the season is still being leveled at the club, according to the owner.
Salford Red Devils were official notified of the RFL charges on 3 March, forcing Koukash to address the players about the issue in the dressing room after the Warrington game.
Koukash was adamant that his first priority was to make sure that the allegations don’t affect his club’s performance on the pitch.
“Like I said after the Warrington game even though we didn’t win, the boys played extremely well and I am going to do everything possible to protect their interests”.
He added that he has not seen any evidence from the sports governing body and will not attend any court case until he sees “whether he has made a mistake”.
Koukash also believes that the players have been done a disservice by the RFL.
“It would be nice for the RFL to protect those boys and all I am asking is for the RFL to come out with a statement saying the investigation has nothing to do with the salary cap”.
The RFL is yet to respond to this morning’s press conference or to any of the comments made by Koukash.
