Sky Sports Rugby League‘s Jon Wilkin has labelled Salford’s “irresponsible” squad selection as “embarrassing” after they were thrashed 82-0 by St Helens last week.
The Rugby Football League (RFL) has launched a compliance investigation into the club’s decision to field a reserve squad in their record-breaking defeat.
The investigation could result in Salford being charged with a breach of operational rules, which if proven would expose the club to a range of potential sanctions.
“It’s a mess,” Wilkin told Sky Sports News.
“To give people some context, Salford had a few cash flow issues. They were placed into special measures, they were bailed out by the fans with crowd funding, they asked for £500,000 of TV money because of the cash problems.
“To put it simply, Salford have been living beyond their means for some time. That’s got them into a position where the RFL was left under no choice but to put a sustainability cap on them. Where basically (you are told) ‘if you don’t shed £800,000 worth of costs, you will go bust’.
“Not only have they done that but they will impose a cap limit, so they can only spend £1.2m on the field. Salford have known about that for some time. It’s not a surprise for Salford.”
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Sky Sports’ Jon Wilkin does not hold back with his criticism of Salford’s decision to field a team of reserve youngsters for their season opener against St Helens and backs the RFL’s actions
Wilkin: Like having a Ferrari without insurance
Due to salary-cap restrictions, the Red Devils were denied the use of a number of senior players for the match, but head coach Paul Rowley still chose not to start other, more experienced squad members who were available.
Saints’ 15-try romp was the biggest winning margin in Super League history and drew criticism from rivals, including Warrington head coach Sam Burgess, that it had compromised the integrity of the competition.
Salford boss Rowley said after the Saints defeat that he had been told he could not use any of the players who had featured against Midlands Hurricanes in the Challenge Cup, and that he chose not to name a mixture of youth and experience.
Due to salary cap restrictions, Salford were denied the use of a number of senior players but head coach Paul Rowley still chose to name three of those who had been available on the bench
Wilkin continued: “I just find it interesting that coach Paul Rowley said ‘it was like having a Ferrari in your garage that you couldn’t drive’.
“My answer to that would be, ‘Paul it’s not’. It’s like having a Ferrari in your garage that you can’t insure, can’t afford to put petrol in, and you have just got a nice Ferrari to say you have a nice car, rather than the ability to use it.
“Every Super League club has a requirement from wealthy ownership to bail them out of cash flow positions. Twelve months ago, I said it was alarm bells at Salford because they didn’t have that.
“They have taken it to the eve of the season and what they tried to do was embarrass the game by fielding such a weak team. It was irresponsible to do so.
Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont took to social media to call out Salford Red Devils
“I thought it was a bad look for the sport, a bad look for Paul Rowley and a bad look for the game.
“It’s accepted in the game that you rest players. Teams before big games rest players. I’ve never known it to be acceptable for that to happen in round one, and not when the week before Paul had fielded a team worth £1.2m on the pitch.”
Salford looking to confirm investment
RFL chiefs met on Monday morning and determined the club could have a case to answer over a potential breach of competition rules, which require that each club “has at all times a squad of players sufficient to meet its obligations in all competitions”.
Salford announced the completion of a takeover last week, but it is understood that the details are still to be sufficiently finalised for the RFL to lift the current restrictions.
Salford were thrashed 82-0 by St Helens in their Super League opener
“Some investment has come in. It’s from overseas and those people are being vetted and because it’s an overseas investor, that takes time,” explained Wilkin.
“It’s not like going on Companies House, where you can see Joe Bloggs has got 25 years of accounts. As it stands, that money or investment, there’s no basis as to whether that’s valid or not, so I applaud the RFL for being strong, solid and consistent and I deplore Salford’s behaviour.
“I think they will reflect on this and Paul Rowley, who is a man of real decency, will regret it.”
Sky Sports will again show every game of the Super League live this season – including two matches in each round exclusively live, with the remaining four matches each week shown on Sky Sports+
Daniel Dubois vs Joseph Parker and the Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol rematch will be live on Saturday February 22 on Sky Sports Box Office. Book now!
