[quote="Chris71":1xju3v8u]In many ways that's akin to sweeping it under the carpet and not governing a sport correctly. For me special measures isn't and wouldn't be a sufficient punishment. The so called special measures so far have affectively been suspended due to no action being taken other than more meetings etc. Asking for an advance is one thing but it certainly seems to have been more than that and has put the up coming season in to the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. With less than a month to go before the season starts it's still up in the air in regards to Salford. I hope Salford do survive but there has to be lessons learned, action taken and consequences for Salford, RFL and IMG, if not what's the point in any of the rules etc the clubs have to follow?[/quote:1xju3v8u] I can see what your saying with the start of the season in the air but until they break some kind of pre defined rule or go into administration I don’t see how they can be punished, as far as I know there’s no financial sustainability rules like in football, it’s hard to see what they’ve done wrong, assuming they can now pay the advance back and fulfil their obligations to the league. Maybe part of the agreement of them going into ‘special measures’ was to carry some kind of punishment but I doubt it. Obviously lessons need to be learned but the only thing they can really do is introduce financial sustainability rules, trouble is every SL club would need to be punished because it appears nobody is running a sustainable business at the moment.

[quote="Mild Rover":2dbjxc4v]The problem is that just about any action that could be taken could be deemed as unfair or could create other problems. Or both. I’m not even sure what the lessons we learn from this are, never mind the actions that should be taken. Several current and former clubs in SL have had much worse financial crises than this one at Salford - with wildly varying consequences. Based on what we know, what would you recommend should be done in terms of punishment?[/quote:2dbjxc4v] I know it’s a difficult one and let’s be honest they way things operate in this sport we will never the full details. I do think a minor pts deduction and possibly even some form of suspended fine for the 2025 season. The sport really isn’t in a great position and this current situation paints the sport in pretty poor light. For this to come out so soon after the IMG gradings were announced I don’t think is a coincidence. For me the whole IMG grading system has proven to flawed somewhat if this can be allowed to happen. Some form of financial sustainability needs to a part of a clubs responsibility as part of being in the SL. I guess that would just open up a can of worms but shows how poorly the sport is both governed and managed by the RFL and the Clubs themselves.