Not sure I would want to see Salford in the middle 8`s as they are not a side I can see us finishing above. Very interesting league this season. 4 teams have to finish in the bottom four, us and Hull KR look very likely candidates then its anyone's guess.

Yes, but for the first 60 minutes they looked class....I know its an 8o minute game but from what I saw of them in the first hour, I will be very surprised if they don't finish in the top 6 (points deduction pending of course).

There is already one conspiracy theory thread but...
Imagine if the enquiry is delayed till the season split, and the findings result in just enough points deduction to drop Salford out of the top 8 - to be replaced by Leeds or Shudds if they are struggling.

The conspiracy would be stronger if t were Catalan that avoided the middle 8

I think because of the attention it's attracted already it's unlikely, but to be fair you make a very good point.

Imagine if they get a season ending deduction - then reset to 0 for the M8's, making the whole thing a paper exercise...

I they are guilty, I don't see that there can be any other outcome.
You can certainly understand Bradford being a little hacked off but, is there any penalty that could see Salford demoted, I don't think so. In fact, the new structure, especially for clubs like Salford (and probably us) mean that any points deduction is futile as we all start from scratch in the middle 8's, you could argue that the first 23 rounds are just warm up games anyway

As i put in my reply to Pop Tart they are a much improved side this year but my point is i feel other teams are (or will be once they get players back) better squad wise than they are and as such will have the edge in them. You say top 6 but who are the 6 teams likely to finish below them? There is some quality in the league this year and when you consider one of the now supposed 'shoe-in's' for the bottom 2 is the team that got to the cup final last year and went through the middle 8's unbeaten then its a tough division. Amounts of injuries and just as importantly the timing of them will be crucial for teams and the lesser teams like Salford (just like us) tend to suffer most when this happens. All this said whichever superleague teams find themselves in the middle 8's should have too much firepower for the championship teams all things being equal.

A points deduction would be pointless unless carried over to middle 8's and then again pointless if not some handicap for million pound game.Probably better having a handicap per game say 10 points, including middle 8's or alternatively take the salary cap excess say £100k factor it up say by 2.5 giving £250k the club is then precluded from playing available players of their choosing each week with salary up to that value, ie could be 5 players on 50k or 2 star players on £125k

It's ok coming up with new penalties for financial irregularities but, The RFL can only try to enforce the rules that are in place already and in the past their legal team haven't been up to the task (Wigan 2007 being a prime example, when they got away with a 4 point deduction instead of

.

A point not lost on a previous employee of the club as well

I know but, we don't want to go there again.
Those comments must still haunt him