Salford City Reds six point deduction for breaking the Super League's wage cap has been upheld after an independent panel turned down the team's appeal. The news leaves Salford still outside of the top eight.
Salford were handed their points deduction back in April when the RFL found them guilty of breaching salary cap regulations this season, a claim still denied by the club's owner Marwan Koukash. The Reds have also been fined £5,000 for "seeking to avoid declaring payments" to one player and "non-declaration of benefits" to two others.
After the announcement Koukash was still in defiant mood and obviously not happy with the decision but did hold his hands up for some of the responsibility saying, "It's very disappointing.
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"Although we demonstrated that we haven't broken the salary cap, and in many ways the RFL has accepted that, the centre point is that I broke the operational rules, which is not declaring three payments in 2013, to which I hold my hand up."
The ban leaves the Red Devils in ninth, five points behind eighth placed Castleford Tigers and needing to win their final three fixtures of the normal season to have any chance of making it into the Super Eights, which they'd be headed towards if it wasn't for the points deduction.
Instead of battling it out for a play-off place they are like to be fighting to avoid relegation along with Huddersfield, Hull KR and Leeds.
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(h.t BBC Sport)
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