[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/35723674[/url

20 points?!

Always had a feeling we'd get found guilty and made a statement of.

Just when things seem rosey and we've managed to keep ourselves out of the media for the wrong reasons.

Maybe a good think we didn't pick up points against Wigan and Warrington.

Oh well middle 8s it is, no point in playing the rest of the main seasons fixtures

I would hazard a guess that the club will refute the claims, so I doubt it will be settled any time soon. If we are found guilty it would seem quite harsh to penalise this particular bunch of players as the majority of them weren't at the club in 2014.

Think 4 points nearer the mark if found guilty. Would guess Marwan has a few cards still to play though. I wonder if this has anything to do with the departure of Martin Vickers?

Think just about everyone knew it was happening, the big surprise is that it's taken so long to come about.

Dock us 20 points and the season becomes meaningless, players would be playing for pride and a win bonus only.

Wonder if Vickers is still being paid through one of Marwans companies

Optimistic if broke the cap for two two years as is being said. Presumably Mark Green's questions about the Tony Puletua saga are behind the allegations.

I think it was more the fact that during the tribunal it emerged that Puletua had two contracts - one with the club and another with a company owned by Marwan Koukash. If this was declared and therefore counted on the live cap at the time there is no problem. If it wasn't and the total spending in wages breaks the cap, then it is a problem.

I imagine that since this came to light about Puletua, the RFL have been looking into other players who might have had the same arrangement such as Chase, Hock, Smith and Locke. Unfortunately, I doubt these players have much inclination to protect the Salford club and have therefore fully cooperated with the RFL!

The thing is, it is easy to breach the salary cap. Just make payments to a player through a third party company. The RFL have no right to audit the other company nor the individual player. However, you are utterly reliant on the player never disclosing the arrangement, as if they do you are royally screwed. As seems to be the case here.

Would this then mean that Leighs books are going to be investigated?

Wonder what the reaction would be if we did get a 20 point deduction if the club then decided for the rest of the season to 'blood' all of the youngsters? There would be nothing to play for anyway.

I'd hope that the Doc steers well clear of this on antisocial media, let the club handle this in a professional (if some of the numpties in the back ground can be classed as professional) rather than in drunken rants.

heard at the game last night 6 points, which obviously is a real issue and will probably mean we are bottom 4, but at least its not 20

Can the RFL legally ask for another company to produce any form of evidence surrounding this, the RFL ask did you? the club says no so at that point do the RFL have any legal standing to produce their books.

Clubs agree to the RFL auditing their accounts as a criteria for joining the competition. So although they have no LEGAL right to get clubs to produce financial information, they have to if they want to remain in any competition where the RFL are the governing body.
The RFL have no legal right to ask other companies or individuals to disclose financial information.

Good luck playing the rest of your fixtures then.

Kick Salford out of Superleague(cheating sods) and Saints can sign Masila then.

Frustrating as we know a lot of other teams do/have done this, but they don't have an owner blatantly saying he will do it.
Also frustrating as its going to affect a group of players and coaches who have had no input or gain from this, and lessons seem to have been learned already.
Take the punishment, if its fair, and move on.

Surely if a current player openly admits that he conspired to break the rules and accepted alleged extra payments through a third party company, then he would also face some sort of disciplinary from the governing body i.e Hock and Chase.

2014 was the year the Bulls got relegated. If Salford are found guilty of cheating to avoid relegation then this caused serious ramifications for Bradford. I'm sure many will be interested how the RFL handle this one.

I can see how the Bradford board will be circling like vultures over the outcome of the hearing. Not that I blame them.

Its only fair then that the points are deducted from the 2014 season points, if we have say 6 points deducted we finish on 17 points. Still 7 ahead of Bradford.

No date has been set for the hearing yet you already know Salford are getting 6 points deducted?

If it is a 6 point deduction then any club can go out and spend what they like as 6 points is easily recovered when you have a team of superstars.

The thing is though if we got anymore then 4 it's a scandal as other clubs have broke the cap and got 2/4 maximum so why we any different.

It is a scandal when arbitrary punishments are made up. Like, for instance, confiscating the whole of the TV money of a club in administration as punishment for being being in administration. And then deciding to share it out to clubs who go on to spend it against the rules of the competition to stay in that competition. Good luck finding someone who'll give a flying one about what's scandalous and what isn't.

This isn't a minor breach. This is a systemic flouting of the rules for years. Are we punishing for one breach? Are we punishing for all of them? Are we punishing all seasons breaches together? Or are we going to stretch it out over as many years as Salford have been pursuing every avenue to break the operating rules of the competition?

Two points my .

They cannot touch the points of the 2014 season without potentially changing the complete SL table; I can see legal challenges. Mind you removing the memory of the 0-38 Saints and 18-32 / 20-30 Widnes results would be nice.

We are in guessland: all we can do is commit to supporting our club as Bulls and Oldham fans have done. But do not expect mercy or support from other fans.

Not really.
Firstly, the breaches by other clubs were never, ever so blatantly deceitful as is being alledged at Salford. Previous breaches have mostly been a result of a misjudgement in terms of bonus payments or some other genuine error which the club has admitted and accepted.
In Salford's case, they seem to have created a company for the purposes of making secret payments to players intended to be hidden from the RFL and therefore circumvent the salary cap. If true, it's devious, underhand and is ultimately cheating all other clubs and the game as a whole.

If Salford are found guilty then it isn't just an administration error. Koukash has publicly shown his disdain for the salary cap so if it is proven that he has blatantly flouted the rule for his own benefit then the club should be dealt with accordingly. Same goes for Derek "I will break the cap" Beaumont at Leigh.