While all the media coverage was focused on the recent appeal by Salford Red Devils owner, Marwan Koukash, against the Club's six points deduction for breaching rules, at the same time there was another appeal by the Rugby Football League, or RFL, which believed that the original penalty was too little.
Papers from the appeal, released by Sport Resolutions independent dispute service, reveal that the RFL challenged "the leniency of the sanction imposed by the Tribunal" and "argued for an increase in the sanction from six points in respect of the regular season to eight points spread across into the Super Eights qualifiers".
If agreed by the Appeal Tribunal, this would have almost certainly pushed the Red Devils closer to relegation.
The RFL also wanted to bring new evidence to the Appeal Tribunal which was not presented at the original hearing, and sought to "introduce fresh charges against the Club". These were both dismissed, and no details were given about the new evidence.
Meanwhile, the RFL appealed against two of the original charges against the Club that were originally dismissed a £22,000 contract with player Francis Meli which the RFL alleged broke the salary cap, and the gift of a £16,000 Maserati from owner Marwan Koukash to player Niall Evalds for winning the Player of the Year award which wasn't declared.
The Appeal Tribunal ruled that there was no direct evidence of the former, and the latter could have been an oversight, which wouldn't have had an impact on the final sanction against the Club.
For his part, Marwan Koukash appealed against some of the conclusions of the original Tribunal findings which confirmed a number of irregularities for which the Club was found guilty of breaches of salary cap and operational rules.
The Club didn't appeal the guilty verdict that that a £48,000 contract existed with player Tony Puletua from EuroMaTech, a Dubai-based company `owned or controlled by Marwan Koukash' for the `provision of leadership training services' that wasn't declared to the RFL. The Tribunal found that it was "a device to avoid the Salary Cap Regulations" and that no `leadership training took place'. This was later changed by the Club to payments made to Pelutua for `recruitment of players' but this, the Tribunal believed, never happened either.
Neither did the Club appeal against the guilty verdict in respect of paying player Lama Tasi's rent of £900 a month for the 2014 season, and player Theo Fage's rent of £7,500 a year... "It was a clear case of breach" stated the Appeal Tribunal.
Altogether, the original Tribunal found that there was a breach of Super League Salary Cap Regulations that, while Salford Red Devils had a limit of £1,825,000 it had a `total aggregate liability' of £1,919,200 for a period of 109 days. The Club also broke RFL regulations "that any information provided must be accurate and complete, which it was not". There were also a whole string of other regulations broken by the Club and Marwan Koukash himself.
The Club's appeal against the verdicts centred on the assertion that Marwan Koukash, on taking over the Club, was "not aware of the details of the salary cap regulations and that he "at no time sought to hide or conceal payments to players".
However, the Appeal Tribunal ruled that "the vast bulk of the points being made were not raised before the Tribunal" and, therefore could not be raised in the appeal process. The Appeal Tribunal stressed that it was not the amount by which the Club exceeded the salary cap but the Club's conduct, particularly in relation to Tony Puletua, which were a "deliberate and contrived attempt to circumnavigate ther Salary Cap..."
The Appeal Tribunal concluded that "there can be no serious challenge to the findings made by the Tribunal in respect of the Club's conduct".
The Club also argued that the six point sanction was `disproportionate' when related to salary cap breaches by other clubs. The Appeal Tribunal agreed with this but concluded that regulations have changed and penalties increased. Indeed, it argued that the penalty might have been more severe but "for the fact that the tribunal was obviously impressed with Dr Koukash and the fact that he has learned much from this experience".
The original decision from the Tribunal was allowed to stand, leaving both the RFL and Marwan Koukash dissatisfied.
There are currently rumours flying around all over the club that Marwan Koukash is either set to leave or stay at the Salford Red Devils, depending on who you talk to. A meeting with fans is set for Friday of this week.
*Read the full transcript of the Appeal Tribunal - click here
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