Andy Burnham reveals outcome of meeting with Salford owners as ‘assurances’ given on future

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has revealed that the owners of Salford Red Devils have given him ‘assurances’ the club will both complete the Super League season and secure its long-term future.

Burnham and the Mayor of Salford, Paul Dennett, met with the ownership group on Friday in a bid to determine the extent of the issues currently engulfing the club.

They are still promising that a crucial multi-million pound bridging loan will arrive in the coming days, which will enable Salford to both meet payroll this month and stave off the threat of a winding-up petition from HMRC at the start of next month.

But without that, there remain grave concerns over Salford’s long-term existence. More supporter protests are scheduled ahead of their game against Warrington on Friday.

Both Burnham and Dennett released a statement on Sunday sharing details about the meeting, and insisted that the future of the club is a ‘going concern’.

They said: “We received assurances that competing the Super League season and securing the future of the club were shared priorities.

“The immediate and most serious challenges in front of the club are paying their payroll at the end of the month, which we received positive assurances from the club owners about and the forthcoming court case brought by HMRC, scheduled for the 3rd September in the High Court.

“The club owners also informed us that they’re in the process of arranging a bridging loan to assist in seeing the club through to the end of the season and to enable the club to make progress in clearing debts. In light of the bridging loan being pursued, we agreed to work together in hopefully securing an outcome that maintains the club as a going concern.”

It is believed that Salford’s future will be determined one way or the other within the next ten days.