Manchester and Salford Mayors call for meeting with Red Devils’ ownership as pressure ramps up

The Mayors of Greater Manchester and the City of Salford have called for a meeting with Red Devils’ ownership in light of the “escalating crisis” at the cash-strapped club.

A joint statement from Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and Paul Dennett, the City Mayor of Salford, has called for a meeting the Jacobsen Management Group, who own Salford Red Devils.

That request comes off the back of Burnham and Dennett meeting with the Chief Executive of the RFL, Tony Sutton, in which the “escalating crisis” at Salford was discussed.

Jacobsen Management Group took charge of Salford in February, however, what has followed was been gross mismanagement with player and staff wages paid late, an exodus of players in order to reduce the wage bill, and huge fan discontent as they watch a side who finished fourth in 2024 ripped apart.

Results have understandably gone awry as well given the fact the Red Devils are playing with what is primarily an academy squad and that saw Salford cancel their most recent fixture, citing player welfare issues.

Four players have already been loaned in ahead of Friday’s game against Leigh but arguably, the meeting between the two Mayors and ownership, if agreed to, will be the major talking point on Friday.

Andy Burnham steps in to help save Salford Red Devils

Burnham and Dennett wish to meeting owners Curtiz Brown and Saia Kailahi to “discuss our serious concerns over the future of the club”, something that plenty of fans share.

Explaining their reasoning, the statement cited: “The impending HMRC court hearing (scheduled for September 3rd), the failure to meet tax obligations, the delays in payment of wages, and the lack of financial investment have resulted in a complete lack of confidence in the ownership among fans and the wider Salford and rugby community.”

Curtiz Brown and the club’s former director Paul King, who is working to try and help through the crisis, met with fan group The 1873 on Monday where it was conceded that the club was purchased as part of an attempted land grab with ownership admitting to no experience of running a sport’s team.

They also explained that the next 10-14 day period is crucial with the proposed bridging loan, which will save the club ahead of September’s meeting with HMRC, also set to land with ownership stating a belief that Salford Council may be open to negotiating a stadium deal at that point.

Some of that may be discussed should this proposed meeting go ahead with the joint statement from Burnham and Dennett explaining that there is a “clear agreement” that local government and the RFL are “resolute in their commitment to safeguard the club”.

You can read the full statement in the embedded tweet below.

Yesterday Andy and @Salford_Mayor met with RFL Chief Executive Tony Sutton to discuss the escalating crisis at Salford Red Devils.

We are committed to working together to secure the long-term future of the club.

Read the statement 👇 pic.twitter.com/xoqU9Viijy

— Mayor of Greater Manchester (@MayorofGM) August 19, 2025