Will a Salford phoenix club be able to contest 2026 season?

There has been a rugby league club in Salford for over 150 years.

The area has a storied history in rugby league.

Winners of the old First Division on six occasions, one Challenge Cup and seven times runners up in the competition.

This is an area which has a long and proud story to tell in the sport.

Yet on Wednesday, that story has ended after a High Court hearing liquidated them over unpaid debts running into millions of pounds.

This, of the back of a season to forget both on and off the field, has plunged the future of the sport in Salford into jeopardy.

But how did they get to this point? And is it really the end?

Taking the 2025 Super League season out of the picture, Salford's recent history has made for impressive reading. They reached the Super League Grand Final in 2019 and the Challenge Cup final the season after.

In 2024, under the stewardship of Paul Rowley, they reached the play-offs thanks to a fourth-placed finish but were beaten at the eliminator stage by Leigh Leopards.

Behind the scenes, however, things have not been so rosy for the Red Devils.

First they requested an advance of their 2025 central payment to cover holes in their finances, something which was eventually granted, while a takeover of the club by a consortium led by businessman Dario Berta was eventually agreed on the eve of the new campaign.

However, youthful sides filled with reserve players and big defeats set the tone for a demoralising season.

Their campaign starting with a record-breaking 15-try 82-0 hammering at St Helens while a chastening 80-6 loss away to Hull FC in August was another low point.

Some players only met their team-mates on the bus drive to Hull for that latter fixture while the club also hastily signed seven players on loan and fielded five debutants in the matchday squad.

These issues, however, came during a season when there was at least the structure of a functioning professional rugby league club available.

Wednesday's announcement has come particularly late in the calendar, when many players and staff have exited their doors, and little time remains to pick up the pieces.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, in conjunction with Paul Dennett, held a meeting with the Rugby Football League earlier in October to make the case for a possible Salford Red Devils phoenix club being able to enter the second tier Championship next season.

At this stage, it is unclear whether a Salford club will be able to fulfil the 2026 Championship fixtures that were published on Tuesday, 24 hours before the club was liquidated.

Salford had been listed to kick off the upcoming second tier campaign by hosting Oldham on Friday, 16 January, however they currently have just one player - full-back Jack Walker - on their books with six weeks to go until the start of the season.

Meanwhile it is also unclear what prospect the club would have in any future IMG grading, given that their finances in 2025 will theoretically directly impact the financial criteria used to decide the grading in 2026.

It would be unlikely they would be graded high enough to compete for a return to Super League for 2027 based on their past finances, unless it is agreed that whichever party subsequently takes ownership of a rugby league club in Salford would be its own entity.

You would expect the finer details of how rugby league in Salford will continue will be decided when the RFL's board meets later this week, however BBC Radio Manchester report that there is interest in the club from three parties.

"Anybody looking to form a phoenix club, they've got less than six weeks with the Christmas period to effectively build an operational infrastructure, playing squad, coaching staff and ticketing. Literally everything is going to have to start from scratch," Nick Holt, founder of fan group The 1873, told BBC Radio Manchester.

"It is going to be difficult. We're aware of some credible parties that are looking to do just that. All of those groups are in diffierent stages but working hard behind the scenes to make sure they can take the club forward and build a club that the community deserves."

As the 2025 season reached its conclusion, protests against the club's ownership and that of consortium members Saia Kailahi and Curtiz Brown ramped up.

Their financial troubles pre-date the arrival of the now previous ownership group. In late 2023 the club had said it was "at risk" due to a protracted row over the ownership of their stadium.

Those financial fears never disappeared leading to the club being put under a sustainability cap in January. They were then ordered by the RFL to sell players.

Almost two weeks after the takeover by Berta's group was announced in February, the RFL eventually approved the change of control.

RFL senior executive director Nigel Wood said in an interview with the BBC in November that it would be unfair for the body to take responsibility for the financial state of any of its member clubs.

"There will always be in any sport - I can point to Sheffield Wednesday, and I could point to Wasps or London Irish or Worcester - there will always be poorly run clubs that eventually don't manage their affairs properly and they can't defy gravity forever," he said.

"The law of the land and the law of insolvency will deal with that in the fullness of time."

He went on to say: "The only people responsible for financial mismanagement are the company directors of those companies that manage them and to lay that on the governing body by proxy is not really appropriate, in the same way it wouldn't be appropriate to lay Sheffield Wednesday's travails on the FA."

With such little time left until the start of the 2026 season it remains to be seen whether it is even possible to collate the staffing and other resources necessary to contest the upcoming campaign.

The promotion to Super League of Bradford Bulls, Toulouse Olympique and York Knights to create an expanded top flight in 2026 came quite late in the rugby league calendar, when many clubs had already carried out their business for the upcoming season.

Nevertheless, the trio have enhanced their respective squads with the certainty of their league position, yet that leaves Salford in a state of flux with such little time left.

Much work will need to be done to contest their opening fixture of the season in mid-January, let alone to compile the resource necessary to see out the entirety of 2026.

Asked whether he thought a credible way forward might be for a potential phoenix club to step aside in 2026 in order to focus on the folowing season, Holt added: "I personally don't think that would work for anybody. Obviously the RFL have now got to look at how they can preserve the integrity of the Championship competition.

"Fixtures were released on Tuesday. There's clubs there that have got fixtures dependent on Salford being part of that structure. Ultimately the time has come for the likes of the RFL and Salford City Council to work with these credible parties who are looking to form a phoenix club and make a decision on that and that decision needs to happen in the next few days."

In a joint statement, Burnham and Dennett said "constructive conversations" about the future ownership of the club had been held earlier this week.

"We believe that the RFL now has the correct governance procedures and leadership in place to make this decision," the statement added,

"We are optimistic that there will be a Salford team playing in the Championship in January 2026."

Work to purchase the club is working at pace with former CEO Chris Irwin saying later on Wednesday that he is working with a consortium to try and salvage the club.

Irwin, who resigned as chief executive after just three months in the role in May, said that "the club, its fans, its community will never die".

And some supporters have told BBC Radio Manchester they are relieved the club has finally been liquidated.

"Throughout this whole year there's been uncertainty because we've been promised things that were great, jam tomorrow. But we didn't even have bread today," Salford fan Steve told BBC Radio Manchester.

"It's been horrendous and that's why most people will be angry and relieved, it's part of the mourning process."

Salford broke their attendance record just over 12 months ago and the passion for the club still remains even off the back of a year to forget.

"Today has been a massive relief for every fan involved with Salford. Whoever's taking over needs our support more than anything," said Dennis Riley, owner of Salford-supporting pub the Dog and Partridge.

"The most important thing to me is to be honest with the fans. Be honest with us and we'll be honest back and you will get 110% support."

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