Londoner’s bid for rugby league’s Salford Red Devils has six-figure backing
A Londoner who played for Salford Red Devils has said he has six-figure backing for a bid to rescue his fallen former club.
Mason Caton-Brown has submitted an offer to buy the former Super League team after they were liquidated with debts of around £4m, ending a 152-year history in rugby league.
His Salford Red Devils consortium – dubbed The Phoenix Bid and including former chairman of the Forever Reds Supporters Trust Malcolm Crompton, businessman Paul Hancock and tech entrepreneur Ashley Washington – is understood to be one of three bidders remaining in the process, alongside a submission from former Red Devils chief Chris Irwin and one with links to the previous administration. The paperwork deadline is Thursday.
“We’ve got committed capital from us as a group,” former Jamaica wing-centre Caton-Brown tells Morning Wire. “Part of our consortium is local businessmen from Salford who have been longtime supporters of the club.
“And we’ve got me with the rugby experience. I’ve actually been in this situation before when I played for London.”
Salford Red Devils rescuers?
Caton-Brown, 32, believes that due to the club being wound up and liquidated, and any successful new bid for the Red Devils license creating a new company, the successful bidders would not need to pay HMRC its tax debt, believed to be around £700,000.
Salford Red Devils went under this month after a fractious period under a consortium led by Dario Berta, chief executive of investment bank Matanel, and did not apply to feature in the Super League next season.
The successful bidders will have four-to-six weeks to build a club from scratch to compete in next year’s Championship and Caton-Brown hopes that means Salford Red Devils staying at their council-owned home, the CorpAcq Stadium, which they share with Prem Rugby club Sale Sharks.
“We want to start and be sustainable over the next year and the year after that, rather than just one big gamble on this,” the former Salford player added.
“We spoke to the council and to work with all the initiatives around rugby league in the city. We’re open to speaking to anyone [including Sale Sharks].
“We’re submitting all of our plans and our business plan to the RFL [rugby league governing body]. If we’re not successful, we’re still there in the background.”