SALFORD owner Marwan Koukash says he intends to appeal against the decision to deduct his club six points for breaching the Super League salary cap.

The Red Devils were found guilty on Monday evening of exceeding the league's £1.825 million wage ceiling in 2014 and 2015.

"I thought about it overnight and have spoken to my legal team this morning and we're going to have to fight this decision," said Koukash.

Salford have 14 days from receipt of the judgement handed down by a Rugby Football League independent tribunal chaired by Judge Peter Charlesworth, who found that the club had committed a serious breach of the rules, to lodge their appeal.

The tribunal ruled the points should be deduced immediately - which plunged the club to 11th place in the table - and also fined the Red Devils £5,000.

Koukash, who spent six hours on Monday at the RFL's Leeds headquarters with his three-man legal team, emerged to say he did not believe his club had received a fair hearing and on Tuesday morning maintained that stance.

"I think the decision was an unfair one," he said. "We'll wait for the papers to come from the RFL and we'll study them so that we know what we're appealing against. We have 14 days."

Salford will take their case to an RFL appeals panel but at a press conference in March, Koukash threatened to take the matter to the highest court in the land in a bid to prove his club's innocence and he remained defiant.

"We'll go through the RFL route to start with and, if necessary, we will have to take other actions," he said.

The tribunal found Salford guilty of breaching rules over contractual arrangements with three players, one of whom is thought to be former St Helens forward Tony Puletua, but innocent of making illegal payments to two other unnamed players.

Koukash added: "The club has made huge improvements to the way it's run. Mistakes could have been made - I'm not saying we've done anything wrong - but I have said before I may have made mistakes but it's very clear I didn't do anything wrong.

"And it is not fair to punish this current squad for things that might have happened three years ago."

Salford's lawyer said they were guilty of naivety in their dealings with players' wages.

"We're disappointed but pleased in some respects because some of the allegations were not found to be proven," said lawyer Paul Barrow, of Liverpool-based Quinn Barrow solicitors.

"Some were. The allegations stemmed from several years ago and what the tribunal also found was that actually things have improved massively and there may have been an issue of naivety. That's all that really there was to be concerned about."

The sanction equals the heaviest handed out to a club since the advent of Super League in 1996.

Wigan were docked four points nine years ago after going over the then £1.6million wage ceiling by £222,314 the previous season when they were fighting relegation while Bradford were ordered to forfeit six points after going into administration in 2012.

Since then, the RFL drastically increased the sanctions and now has the power to deduct up to 20 points.

The RFL has confirmed that the six points will remain deducted during the initial appeal process, which could take around a month.