Eventually, he moved to Britain to progress his education, and settled in St Helens to study at the local technical college.

[2] His racing silks are grey with a gold star[7] and many of his horses are named after his son, Gabrial and daughters, Lexi and Layla.

He was encouraged to take ownership of Salford by the Rugby Football League chief executive Nigel Wood, who had met Koukash on a flight to Dubai.

[10] Koukash aims to make the club the biggest in Super League, rebranding them as Salford Red Devils in 2013 and signing 14 new players.

In 2014, Koukash made public his ambitions of purchasing a team in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL) before the 2015 season.