Marwan Koukash: Salford Red Devils owner believes he has failed Super League club

Marwan Koukash has been critical of how the RFL run the sport this season

Salford Red Devils owner Marwan Koukash has admitted his time in charge of the club has been a failure.

The Kuwait-born businessman and racehorse owner bought Salford in 2013 when they were in financial trouble.

Despite a huge investment in the playing squad, the Red Devils have not finished higher than 10th, and are 11th this season after a points deduction for breaching the salary cap.

"I think I've failed miserably," the 57-year-old told Rugby League Extra.

"I've not advanced the club as much as I would have liked, although we have a better team than we did in 2014.

"One of my main goals of the time was to grow the club, and that means commercially and the fans coming to the ground, now attendances this year are almost half of what they were when I came in."

Stadium issues

Salford Red Devils groundshare the AJ Bell Stadium with rugby union side Sale Sharks

With attendances declining at the AJ Bell Stadium, Koukash believes their relocation from the Willows to their new home in Barton in 2012 has been the main reason.

"Questions have to be asked about was it a wise thing to take Salford from the heart of the city to where they are now," he said.

"I'm talking about the location of the stadium and that's affecting the club big, big time. Rugby league is a community game and people like to walk to the ground.

"St Helens, Wigan and Warrington fans can walk to their own stadium and we don't have that - our traditional fan base is miles away."

'Hard evidence'

Salford are accused of breaching the £1.825m salary cap over the past two years

In April, Salford were docked six points and fined £5,000 by the Rugby Football league for breaching salary cap regulations in 2014 and 2015.

Before that ruling, Koukash said he would go to the "highest court of the land" to prove their innocence and an appeal will be heard on 6 July.

"It is not going to be a complicated case, it's very simple," stated Koukash.

"There was a claim that was made in the judgement letter that we breached the cap by x amount of money by x amount of days.

"I've got now the hard evidence, stop speculation as I have got it in black and white, that shows we have not breached the salary cap.

"We haven't gone over the salary cap by a single pound or for a single day."