LEIGH LEOPARDS owner Derek Beaumont believes that the IMG scoring system is not “working correctly” after his club were given 12.45 points in the provisional grading system revealed last month.
Of course, those scores are indicative and will not go towards the real grade given at the end of 2024.
However, Beaumont took aim at the fact that Leigh were given just 0.43 points more than Bradford Bulls, who sat 14th in the table after being awarded 12.02 points.
The Leigh owner drew on the contrast in facilities as well recent success as the main points of his argument for the IMG grading system stuttering.
“I would love to see Bradford back in the top flight with a good facility but no one can argue with me that, on the face of it, there is a 0.45 points difference between Leigh and Bradford – and 0.25 of that is for winning the Challenge Cup which we will lose, so we are looking at a 0.2 difference,” Beaumont said on the club’s YouTube channel.
“Something strikes me as this can’t be working correctly. No disrespect to Bradford, their stadium, their pitch doesn’t meet minimum standards anyway, it’s dilapidated and it’s no longer a top quality playing surface. It needs significant investment or a new stadium which they are aiming to get and I hope they do.
“The last three years they have been in the Championship and League One before that with financial problems and so forth, so I fail to see how any kind of scoring structure would put them so close a team that is in a modern facility, state-of-the-art stadium with LED boards and a big screen, with a fantastic playing surface. We are a team that has been in Super League two of the last three years, done the treble in the year we weren’t in Super League, just won the Challenge Cup and finished fifth and has probably got more eyes on it than a lot of clubs in terms of media attention, raising the bar in terms of entertainment and putting into the game.”
Beaumont also went further, stating that the Leopards are an example of how to do things.
“I’m not blowing my own trumpet, but we are actually putting out there what we think the game should be doing and that surely can’t measure 0.2 points difference to what Bradford are offering.
“Without being rude, it’s almost like having your highest-performing student only getting 0.2 of a mark more than one of your lower ones. That didn’t look right.”
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