GRAHAM MORRIS is a lifelong Salford supporter and a noted Rugby League historian, both for the club and the wider game (his latest book is ‘Rugby Victoriana’). Here he reacts to the Red Devils’ takeover.
I AM sure I was not the only Salford Red Devils follower who contributed to a collective sigh of relief on Friday after the midday confirmation of the club’s long-anticipated takeover.
The announcement on the club website of its purchase by a consortium under the leadership of businessman Dario Berta ended weeks of uncertainty and speculation, the rumour-mill having been in full swing since the end of the 2024 season.
It is no secret that the club had become one of the most financially challenged Super League outfits since Marwan Koukash relinquished ownership in 2017, the baton passing to a supporters consortium under the name of Salford RD Holdings.
Reportedly one potential bid for the club had stalled due to delays in Salford Council’s decision-making process. The council, who already owned 50% of the Salford Community Stadium, eventually confirmed the purchase of the remaining half from Peel Holdings during December. But the uncertainty of the outcome had placed the Red Devils in a precarious position for any would-be purchaser.
The knock-on effect was that Salford’s 2025 salary cap budget was consequently reduced by a massive £800,000. Thankfully, with that cloud well and truly lifted due to the acquisition, the future now looks brighter than ever.
That Salford managed to retain Super League status in the post-Koukash era defied all predictions.
Reaching both the Grand Final and the Challenge Cup Final was a Boys Own story in itself.
Managing the club on a shoe-string budget in recent years was a credit to its new directors and particularly Paul King, who took on the very demanding role of managing director in the interim.
Coaches Ian Watson and Paul Rowley should also be given due recognition for their achievements.
In 2021 an alarming piece of news surfaced for Red Devils’ fans with the proposal that Sale Sharks rugby union club, who share the stadium, were intent on purchasing the venue in partnership with League One football club Salford City. The plan, as it transpired, was for the Red Devils to relocate to Salford City’s ground at Moor Lane. Thankfully, from the Red Devils viewpoint, the council vetoed the idea, reiterating its support for the city’s Rugby League club.
During my involvement with Salford over the years I have been privileged to know Brian Snape, Keith Snape and John Wilkinson, three chairmen who collectively piloted the clubs fortunes for half a century from 1963 to 2013 and I was, myself, the club secretary for several years during the 1980s. Therefore, I am well aware of the stress and strain that accompanies the seemingly glamorous and sometimes rewarding role of club chairman.
This brings me back to Paul King, who has recently had to contend with harsh comments from some of the club’s supporters, several having reportedly asked for a refund on their season tickets. I do get that it has been a trying period for even the most loyal of the club’s die-hards and emotions can run high at times but believe me, no one has given more to Salford’s cause than Paul. The key thing was the survival of the club.
Having supported Salford since the mid-1950s, I can safely state that off-field drama is nothing new for the club, admittedly a statement that could be reiterated by most of our professional and semi-professional Rugby League teams.
But, like the proverbial rubber ball, the Reds keep bouncing back.
When the club moved from New Barnes to The Willows during 1901, the initial cost placed Salford into financial difficulties, a scenario not unfamiliar to modern fans. A four-day fund-raising bazaar was held at the historic Salford Lads’ Club, later made famous after its image was featured in The Smiths’ 1986 album The Queen Is Dead. Held in March 1903, it was the first event to take place there, preceding its official opening by ten months.
Unfortunately it did not resolve the club’s deficit. In later years, to ease the burden, James Lomas was sold to Oldham for a record £300 in 1911 and, in 1912, the Salford Mayor, Henry Linsley, launched a Mayor’s Appeal Fund. It raised a substantial sum but insufficient to avoid the club falling into the hands of the official receiver.
Incredibly, when Salford won its first major honour through defeating Huddersfield’s famed ‘Team of All the Talents’ in the 1914 Championship Final, the receiver Geoffrey Swire still held the position of acting chairman. The crisis was eventually resolved later that year when the club was relaunched as Salford Football Club (1914) Ltd. That title lasted just short of its century before another rebirth as Salford City Reds (2013) Ltd.
In 1928 former Wigan and New Zealand threequarter Lance Todd took over as manager, heralding the most successful decade in the club’s history, taking the team from the basement to the summit in his first year in charge and earning the iconic Red Devils tag during their 1934 pioneering tour of France.
But at the start of his reign, Todd also had to tread the financial minefield with care, revealing, rather surprisingly, in later years “I have never forgotten the gesture of the Oldham club when Salford were down at the bottom, and Oldham invested money”.
I have witnessed this predicament at first hand. When John Wilkinson took over as chairman and owner in 1982, his first mission was to reduce the club debts by launching an SOS (‘Save Our Salford’) Fund which had the effect of creating awareness amongst supporters for the need to rally around the club.
Many Salford fans will also recall the meeting at St Thomas’ Church in Pendleton in December 2012 when Wilkinson addressed a large gathering of supporters to explain the club’s financial position, which was again looking precarious after its first season at the new stadium. It was an event heavily covered at the time in the media. A potential catastrophe was finally resolved when Koukash took over the club one month later.
In my role as the club’s historian I have spent many years researching and reflecting on its great players from the past. Although we cannot claim to have won as many trophies as, say, St Helens, Leeds or Wigan, the supporters have been entertained by some of the sport’s greatest performers. This is evidenced by the recent induction of James Lomas into the Rugby League Hall of Fame, placing him alongside two other Red Devils legends in Gus Risman and David Watkins.
The club has also provided three Great Britain tour captains; Lomas, Risman and Chris Hesketh.
Salford’s most affluent period was under Brian Snape’s chairmanship in the late-1960s and early ‘70s when the club broke the Rugby League transfer record four times in signing Colin Dixon, Paul Charlton, Eric Prescott and Steve Nash in addition to breaking the record fee for a rugby union signing when Watkins arrived in 1967.
In more recent seasons, though, it has been necessary to sell to survive. The club’s two outstanding Australian halfbacks Jackson Hastings (in 2019) and Brodie Croft (2022) both won the prestigious Steve Prescott Man of Steel award but, unfortunately and almost predictably, they eventually moved on because of financial considerations.
I hope Salford’s fan base can now look forward to a period of growth and stability with the only drama taking place on the field and not off it.
Their patience and loyalty certainly warrants it.
