Salford Red Devils’ current position explained following squad changes and RFL assurances

Salford Red Devils raised yet more eyebrows this afternoon with their squad selection for Friday’s clash with Castleford Tigers. The Reds have been placed into special measures once more after failing to pay their players last month.

As such, the club are working under a sustainability cap of £1.2 million, and were expected to have to pick from the same team that represented Salford in their Challenge Cup round three clash against Midlands Hurricanes.

However, Paul Rowley has named a 17-man squad that features the likes of Marc Sneyd, Kallum Watkins and Chris Hill, who weren’t involved in that Cup clash last month. So how have they been allowed to do that?

Well, the first thing to say is that the squad remains compliant with the sustainability cap imposed on them, with the squad totalling just less than the £1.2m limit. Consequently, the club are working within their imposed means in that regard.

The changes to the personnel, though, come after the club were granted permission by the governing body to make a number of changes to the squad available to them. That comes following a number of injuries and the bans being served by Jayden Nikorima and Joe Shorrocks.

Such absences would have left Salford short of being able to name what could have been a competitive side to face Castleford and to avoid a repeat of their opening day farce against St Helens, the club have been given dispensation to make changes.

Of course, Castleford could expect to have been consulted on the decision, but given their desire to get the game on for financial reasons, the decision seems to suit all parties.

At the time of writing, it is understood that Salford players haven’t been paid yet and it remains to be seen if that money will drop before Friday’s clash. However, in a meeting with the RFL and RL Commercial this morning, Salford Red Devils’ new owners fronted up, alongside new CEO Chris Irwin to provide assurances regarding pay roll, fixture completion and the short to medium-term financial sustainability of the club.

There is hope then that their short-term outstanding debts can be settled be settled in the coming days, the sooner the better, of course. It remains to be seen if that will happen, but assurances have been given and the hope is that the new owners will be able to keep to their word.

They have given assurances before, surrounding the money required to purchase the club, but that hasn’t landed either with such a delay said to be unforeseen.

Paying their players alone wouldn’t be enough to see Salford Red Devils’ sustainability cap lifted, either, with the governing body needing to be convinced that the club can run itself over the short to mid-term.

Indeed, the hope is that Salford’s situation is able to progress smoothly and without further hitch but bigger questions will be asked if those assurances aren’t met.

Our Round 4 squad 👇 pic.twitter.com/mKlAzL3URf

— Salford Red Devils 👹 (@SalfordDevils) March 5, 2025