{"id":377477,"date":"2026-01-18T21:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T21:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377477\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T21:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T21:17:10","slug":"inside-the-chaotic-first-days-of-salfords-phoenix-rugby-league-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377477\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the ‘chaotic’ first days of Salford’s phoenix rugby league club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bosses at the club spoke about its future and relationship with Salford council.\"Ryan<\/p>\n

Ryan Brierley, the CEO of Salford rugby league phoenix club (Image: Kenny Brown \/ MEN)(Image: )<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a Wednesday afternoon and it\u2019s frantic in the offices at the CorpAcq Stadium in Salford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s former rugby league club Salford Red Devils were liquidated at the end of last year<\/a>, and a phoenix club has risen from the ashes.<\/p>\n

Former Red Devils captain Ryan Brierley was appointed CEO of the new team and is tasked with overseeing pretty much everything ahead of their opening match against Oldham<\/a> on January 16.<\/p>\n

A consortium led by another former Salford player<\/a>, Mason Caton-Brown, was successful in its efforts at leading the phoenix club\u2019s revival and gaining membership approval from the Rugby Football League.<\/p>\n

But in their offices at the stadium days before the big game, the scene is not too different from a house move. There are unpacked boxes on the floor and stuff is everywhere.<\/p>\n

One of the team jumps in to say: \u2018It\u2019s just been non stop, we were trying to sort everything out on Christmas<\/a> Eve, that\u2019s what it\u2019s been like since then.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The new club is working on a stadium deal with Salford council (Image: Kenny Brown \/ MEN)(Image: )<\/p>\n

Ryan Brierley sits on a table to be photographed and there\u2019s an air fryer behind him – it is quickly moved out of view – and he\u2019s being asked about organising a raffle before trying to sum up how the last few weeks have played out.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a childhood Salford fan and has the honour of leading the new club through the turbulence of its early days.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been chaotic,\u201d Ryan says. \u201cIt\u2019s really challenging but I’ve learnt an awful lot in such a short space of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of hard work in a hectic nature, but it\u2019s something I really enjoy, which is learning on the go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former rugby league player was part of the Salford Red Devils team that was going through turmoil<\/a> as it approached its end.<\/p>\n

There were times when staff went unpaid, the club was given financial support from Salford council, and it looked to be constantly on the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n

What was that like to be involved in as a former captain?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just awful,\u201d Ryan explains. \u201cIt’s really heartbreaking when you see people you love and care about going through the anxiety and stress of the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was probably the most difficult part, being almost a spokesperson for the group, trying to defend the club as best as we could, but ultimately I guess the stuff went on would probably never happen again in this sport and shouldn\u2019t be allowed to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally poor what happened, and ultimately we\u2019re lucky that we\u2019ve been given a chance to resurrect the club and save 152 years of heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about me or the staff here, it\u2019s about the fans who own this club. The way they galvanised together at the back end of it was pretty special, so to have the chance to lead this organisation into this new era is pretty humbling and a massive honour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/p>\n

Ryan Brierley, the CEO of Salford rugby league phoenix club, has had a busy start to his new role (Image: Kenny Brown \/ MEN)(Image: )<\/p>\n

Salford has a special connection with rugby that is hard to find elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The city was the birthplace of William Webb Ellis, the man credited with inventing the sport of rugby itself.<\/p>\n

For the club to lose its top rugby league club in Salford Red Devils was a hammer blow for its loyal supporters.<\/p>\n

A fan protest group called the 1873 – named in reference to the Red Devils\u2019 founding – led the charge in holding the previous owners to account.<\/p>\n

Connor Robinson, one of the members of the group, summed it up last October: \u201cFor a lot of people who do attend, this club is their life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know a lot of people who come from broken families and it’s their one time in the week where they might go meet up with their mum or dad, and spend that quality time together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s also the glue for a lot of people who’ve moved away from the area, that reason for coming back to the city every week and meeting up with friends and family, it’s so much more than just a rugby club and 80 minutes of rugby league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salford Red Devils had struggled to survive financially for years, and often relied on support from Salford council.<\/p>\n

Loans and grants were given to the former club to help it stay afloat, but this drew criticism from some in the council chamber who questioned whether it was the right thing to do with public money.<\/p>\n

The council also own Salford Community Stadium where Salford RLFC are playing, so the relationship between the two is key to the new club\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\"Salford<\/p>\n

Salford Mayor Paul Dennett at Salford Community Stadium last year (Image: Salford council)(Image: )<\/p>\n

Ryan Brierley said: \u201cThe council has given us support, there\u2019s obviously things they can and can\u2019t do, it\u2019s taxpayers\u2019 money at the end of the day isn\u2019t it, but we have been given assurances that they will help support us throughout the year like they always have done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trust the Mayor and Councillor [Jack] Youd and people like that, they\u2019ve been really supportive of us, I trust their word that they will help us, and straight away they reached out with a few initiatives that we can use.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt that this council will support this club going forward like they always have done.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t keep asking for handouts all the time, we\u2019ve got to give value, so the Mayor and the board within that building need to be shown value for us, and that for me starts in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to do better in the community, we don\u2019t do enough, but to receive you\u2019ve got to give first, that will be my aim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no deal in place at the moment [over the stadium], there are ongoing conversations between our managing director, we\u2019re very early into the conversations and negotiations around what\u2019s going to happen around the stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully there\u2019s some alignment there in the coming weeks, but as of yet we are still to get into the real detail of how that looks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what I will say is both the stadium, council, and the catering company have been really supportive of what we\u2019ve done so far, so hopefully those relationships grow and we get something over the line which is beneficial for all parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked how the new club can survive when Salford Red Devils could not?<\/p>\n

Mr Brierley said: \u201cDon\u2019t spend more than we earn, it\u2019s pretty simple for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically this club have bought players and spent on things that they couldn\u2019t afford, and that\u2019s nothing to do with the last 12 months I think that\u2019s historically, we\u2019ve not dealt with that right and we\u2019ve gone over budget on certain things, rolled the dice too many times, we can\u2019t do that anymore, we can\u2019t gamble, we need to do things right, remain on budget and be disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bosses at the club spoke about its future and relationship with Salford council. Ryan Brierley, the CEO of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,2447,103629,123185,101,56,54,55,112864],"class_list":{"0":"post-377477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-salford","10":"tag-salford-council","11":"tag-salford-red-devils","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-unmissable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}