Marwan Koukash plays moneyball for rugby league

If rugby league is ever going to return to the days when it could lure all the cream of the rival code’s players, it needs a Roman Abramovich or two to take a liking to the sport to make it happen. Marwan Koukash, the owner of Salford Red Devils, had decided he is that man.

Marwan Koukash, second from left, has been successful in horse racing at Brae Hill with William Hill Lincoln and trainer Richard Fahey, left and jockey Tony Hamilton, right. Koukash, who owns the SalfShow more

If rugby league is ever going to return to the days when it could lure all the cream of the rival code's players, it needs a Roman Abramovich or two to take a liking to the sport to make it happen.

One man is making a bid do just that. Marwan Koukash, the owner of Salford Red Devils – as he has renamed them – is fed up with the one-way traffic of the leading league players to play union.

“I will buy players from rugby union, and I mean the very top players,” Koukash said in the UK media.

“We are already on the lookout at players who have played for the British Lions.

“If we want them, we will get them. I will show rugby union what I can do.”

He initially courted Sam Tomkins when he first took over last year, only for the northern hemisphere’s biggest league star to opt for a move to New Zealand for a world-record fee instead.

Salford fielded an entirely new starting side in their opening game of the Super League season, with stars of the format, such as Adrian Morley and Rangi Chase, in tow.

He is ploughing a lone furrow if he is going to halt the conversions of players of the ilk of Sam Burgess, who is swapping codes after choosing to leave South Sydney Rabbitohs to join Bath.

Realistically, Koukash is going to struggle to fulfil his plan “unless he is Bill Gates”, as one union boss puts it.

It will be good fun watching him try.

Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE