SUNDAY’S Super League match between Salford Red Devils and Wakefield Trinity has been cancelled.
The RFL held crisis talks earlier today (Friday) with Salford, who say they asked for the game to be called off due to “significant concerns regarding player welfare”.
They were unable to raise a team despite being given special dispensation to recruit additional loan players, with ten in the squad for last Sunday’s 80-6 defeat at Hull FC.
League Express understands that several Super League clubs were reluctant to offer their players to Salford in the aftermath of that thrashing.
The RFL Board will determine the outcome of the fixture early next week. The RFL’s operational rules indicate a 48-0 walkover score should be awarded when a match is forfeited.
There are now serious question marks over whether they can continue this season, with five further rounds still to be played after this weekend. Salford are bottom of the table with just two wins from 21 matches.
The club have lost 15 first-team players since the beginning of the campaign, but insisted in their statement that they could still fulfil future games.
“Of the 17 available for Sunday’s fixture, there are only two senior players who have featured at Super League level over the last 12 months, with academy products making up the rest of the current playing squad,” they said.
“Eleven members of the first-grade team are currently injured – although a number of those are expected to be available for Salford’s next scheduled fixture against Leigh Leopards (next Friday, August 22).”
The RFL said in a statement: “The RFL, Rugby League Commercial and Rugby League Cares have been in discussions with Salford Red Devils throughout the week regarding their difficulties specific to Sunday’s scheduled Betfred Super League fixture against Wakefield Trinity.
“At a meeting on Friday afternoon, Salford advised that they had taken the decision to withdraw from the fixture, and explained their reasoning.”
It caps another week of deep strife as the club lurch from one crisis to another.
The ownership group which took over the Red Devils in February insisted in the aftermath of the Hull game that the club “will not close” and that fresh funds will soon arrive.
But a recently-formed supporters group, The 1873, who planned to protest against the club’s owners at Sunday’s match, responded by calling on them to leave the club.
The club made national headlines yesterday (Thursday) when chief operating officer Claire Bradbury quit and alleged that the ownership had suggested she “sleep with an individual at the RFL” to “smooth over” the club’s predicament.
Salford have vowed to conduct a “thorough internal investigation” into the claims.