It seems more club’s beginning to question IMG proposals, it would appear currently they would favour the current 12 SL clubs, even if Trinity were relegated This season.
The statement below is taken from The Featherstone Rovers Chief in today’s total RL.
THE latest IMG proposals in order to ‘re-imagine’ rugby league have created some heavy debate.
In order to achieve Grade A, B and C clubs, IMG set out a number of criteria that were sent out to the 36 professional clubs at a meeting a number of weeks ago at Huddersfield Giants’ John Smith’s Stadium.
In that criteria, five main areas were outlined: fandom (25%), performance (25%), finances (25%), stadium (15%) and catchment (10%) with different weightings in each.
For Featherstone Rovers chief executive, Martin Vickers, the plans were a ‘disappointment’ after what he feels was a change in the rules.
“We were disappointed with the latest iteration of the model. We had some clear messages previously that whilst B category teams were in Super League, B clubs in the Championship could get promoted,” Vickers told League Express.
“It is now that you have to be a B plus a score. That means it is all skewed towards a a current top 12 club so there is no way you can beat the bottom end of Super League on performance even if they are bottom of the league because they will be 12th out of 36 as opposed to our 13th.
“So we were disappointed. We felt there was a tweak in the rules that seemed to be skewed in favour of the bottom end of Super League who in every way have had their chance.”
For Vickers, he believes there is a “ceiling” for Championship clubs that should be done away with.
“We have such a strong model here for continuous improvement so this is not anything of us being fearful of improvement. We have aspirations and goals to be a category A.
“We do feel, though, that we have to have a level playing field and have a chance because the same four or five teams dwindling at the bottom of Super League have had their chance already.
“I feel there is a ceiling of a B Championship club on reaching the same score as those clubs, this is our chance.
“We know we can hold our own against those clubs but we know we have to have improve. We know we are not a category A club which you see against the benchmark of Leeds, St Helens and Wigan but you don’t necessarily get it with some other clubs.
“It’s obvious why some clubs are A star clubs, they have the crowd, stadium and have invested in their teams and academy teams. It’s those kind of fine lines as you get past those six or seven clubs.”
Among Championship and League One clubs, there have been a number of conversations in order to establish the opinions of various officials with dialogue ongoing.
“We have been in lots of consultation with other clubs because there definitely seems to be a strength of feeling on some of these issues and that was gathered after the last council meeting.
“We need to be clear that some of these standards are creating an accessible kind of game for the future. And that’s all we want.
“The consultations haven’t been massive in terms of detail but there was a big talk at the start of this that the game has got overly focused on structure in the past and I agree with that.
“But now we are all talking about a scoring system. Where do you have an exam system where someone is a B16 or a B12? What we are doing is creating another monster in my view that could be far more simplistic.
“There is certainly lots of dialogue in a constructive way. Clearly everyone wants the game to flourish and everyone knows it can’t go on as it is. It’s just good collaboration and making sure some of these voiced are heard.”
