2025 Club Ratings

[Hopie]

1 minute ago, The 4 of Us said:

Sorry, yes see what you mean. This refers at 3.7 to the original amendment but struggling to find anything that changes it to that which appears in the booklet. 

https://www.rugby-league.com/uploads/docs/Club IMG Grading Criteria 2025.pdf

Looked here but guess what !

https://www.rugby-league.com/governance/about-the-rfl/the-rfl-council

 

Certainly appears that this change (the 0.25 grading point fine upgraded to loss of all points) was not in the list of changes, other documents may exist, but reasonable to have some issue with the way this has been done on the evidence available to us.

[The 4 of Us]

On another note, Toulouse, York and London were all ahead of Bradford on the 2025 grading announcement. If Toulouse winning gives them another .25 points and Salford haven’t applied to get in, I can see how the others overtake them.

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12204/13238337/img-gradings-explained

 

[The 4 of Us]

1 hour ago, mattcasfan said:

I know? My previous posts already referred to the difference of the doc in Dec 24 to the handbook in Jan 25. 

My questions are why did this change and were clubs notified.

The only public information of changes to the criteria into 2025 was the Dec 24 doc. Quite clearly, something changed between then and the doc on January. Everything else seems to have remained the same. 

 

Reference to first RFL council meeting of 2025 here but no reference and no minutes.

https://www.rugby-league.com/article/63997/rfl-council-|-tuesday-15-july-2025

[gingerjon]

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/rugby-league-news-rfl-respond-as-aspects-of-keighley-cougars-statement-refuted-after-club-awarded-zero-img-points-109127/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNQPftleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFnREVWQWRBS3NhNmtXcEZQAR7XOzYGKZ-W1QX3bphDv0LEmXgdQG6HN9XRi8oTtQ0YOnZTkVdLIcP3ay4IJA_aem_wyikYnQOxPvj_2d03IQ99w#google_vignette

That statement confirms that all League One clubs had to submit data on Monday September 8th with any who missed that deadline contacted the very same night to confirm their IMG score of zero.

Per the RFL, Keighley made contact on Wednesday September 10th, over 24 hours after the deadline, to ask for an extension, which was subsequently refused.

...

 

Keighley’s examples of both Batley Bulldogs and Whitehaven missing the deadline in 2024 but still being given scores according to the Cougars was also addressed by the RFL.

In fact, both clubs scored zero officially but they were informed of what their score would have been so that their financial distribution for 2025 could be worked out.

[JonM]

15 hours ago, mattcasfan said:

My questions are why did this change and were clubs notified.

It's there in black and white in the club grading handbook that every club has (and which has been available online since January). 

My assumption is that this happened because Keighley parted ways with their General Manager a few weeks ago (and also Jake Webster) and by the looks of it, the first time the owners thought about the need to submit the data was when they got the RFL email telling them they'd missed the deadline.

[mattcasfan]

7 minutes ago, JonM said:

It's there in black and white in the club grading handbook that every club has (and which has been available online since January). 

My assumption is that this happened because Keighley parted ways with their General Manager a few weeks ago (and also Jake Webster) and by the looks of it, the first time the owners thought about the need to submit the data was when they got the RFL email telling them they'd missed the deadline.

As it is also here in black and white on the agreed changes for 2025 that was communicated publicly. 

https://www.rugby-league.com/uploads/docs/Club IMG Grading Criteria 2025.pdf

I've already said it's their fault for being late.

What is interesting to me is the change that has been made from Dec 24 to Jan 25.

Personally, if you read that document above, I would be quite surprised to see a totally different punishment then appear in the handbook. 

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

7 hours ago, gingerjon said:

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/rugby-league-news-rfl-respond-as-aspects-of-keighley-cougars-statement-refuted-after-club-awarded-zero-img-points-109127/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNQPftleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFnREVWQWRBS3NhNmtXcEZQAR7XOzYGKZ-W1QX3bphDv0LEmXgdQG6HN9XRi8oTtQ0YOnZTkVdLIcP3ay4IJA_aem_wyikYnQOxPvj_2d03IQ99w#google_vignette

That statement confirms that all League One clubs had to submit data on Monday September 8th with any who missed that deadline contacted the very same night to confirm their IMG score of zero.

Per the RFL, Keighley made contact on Wednesday September 10th, over 24 hours after the deadline, to ask for an extension, which was subsequently refused.

...

 

Keighley’s examples of both Batley Bulldogs and Whitehaven missing the deadline in 2024 but still being given scores according to the Cougars was also addressed by the RFL.

In fact, both clubs scored zero officially but they were informed of what their score would have been so that their financial distribution for 2025 could be worked out.

That doesn’t make sense. If officially scored zero they should have been equal bottom of the distribution table.

[TrueBull]

Keighley also ended the contracts of admin/team manager people last month. The responsibility for putting this in likely reverted to the owners

[TrueBull]

19 hours ago, The 4 of Us said:

On another note, Toulouse, York and London were all ahead of Bradford on the 2025 grading announcement. If Toulouse winning gives them another .25 points and Salford haven’t applied to get in, I can see how the others overtake them.

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12204/13238337/img-gradings-explained

 

So that’s Sky in January 2025 talking about last years scores? Useful to have last years baseline handy though 

[The 4 of Us]

24 minutes ago, TrueBull said:

So that’s Sky in January 2025 talking about last years scores? Useful to have last years baseline handy though 

Read again. It refers to 2025 scores and the indicative scores that preceded them.

[Ethereal]

19 hours ago, The 4 of Us said:

On another note, Toulouse, York and London were all ahead of Bradford on the 2025 grading announcement. If Toulouse winning gives them another .25 points and Salford haven’t applied to get in, I can see how the others overtake them.

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12204/13238337/img-gradings-explained

 

Financial possibly. Could be movement on the balance sheet scoring etc, I don't think we have enough info to sensibly speculate.

[TrueBull]

2 hours ago, The 4 of Us said:

Read again. It refers to 2025 scores and the indicative scores that preceded them.

Yes, it’s a preseason discussion for the scoring for the 2025 season, based on the scores from this time last year. 
We are now discussing the indicative scores for the 2026 season 

[Hopie]

12 hours ago, gingerjon said:

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/rugby-league-news-rfl-respond-as-aspects-of-keighley-cougars-statement-refuted-after-club-awarded-zero-img-points-109127/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNQPftleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFnREVWQWRBS3NhNmtXcEZQAR7XOzYGKZ-W1QX3bphDv0LEmXgdQG6HN9XRi8oTtQ0YOnZTkVdLIcP3ay4IJA_aem_wyikYnQOxPvj_2d03IQ99w#google_vignette

That statement confirms that all League One clubs had to submit data on Monday September 8th with any who missed that deadline contacted the very same night to confirm their IMG score of zero.

Per the RFL, Keighley made contact on Wednesday September 10th, over 24 hours after the deadline, to ask for an extension, which was subsequently refused.

...

 

Keighley’s examples of both Batley Bulldogs and Whitehaven missing the deadline in 2024 but still being given scores according to the Cougars was also addressed by the RFL.

In fact, both clubs scored zero officially but they were informed of what their score would have been so that their financial distribution for 2025 could be worked out.

So both teams were scored zero before the rules changed? (missing the deadline this year means a zero score, it was a small deduction last year)

[The 4 of Us]

17 minutes ago, TrueBull said:

Yes, it’s a preseason discussion for the scoring for the 2025 season, based on the scores from this time last year. 
We are now discussing the indicative scores for the 2026 season 

No. First indicative scores for 2024, then actual scores upon which the league was made up in 2025, and then scores which inform make up of league in 2026.

 

[TrueBull]

22 hours ago, The 4 of Us said:

On another note, Toulouse, York and London were all ahead of Bradford on the 2025 grading announcement. If Toulouse winning gives them another .25 points and Salford haven’t applied to get in, I can see how the others overtake them.

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12204/13238337/img-gradings-explained

 

I think we’re at cross purposes here. So, for the scores that made up the 2025 season, from that sky sports link, Toulouse were on 13.58 and as a minimum, have picked up another 0.25. And when the scores for 2026 are released on 16th October, they will likely be around 14, max. 
 

Bradford for 2025, were on 12.15. From the public info so far this year, Bradford seem to have picked up a full point in facilities, 0.5 in finance and 0.37 in performance, with losing the 9th place from 2022 and replacing it with a3rd place this year. So will be about 14,  14.10 points. Which is why the board are quietly confident for 16th October that they have a good chance for 12th place. 

It doesn’t really matter what the score was last year, but the improvement for this year. 

[Wellsy4HullFC]

32 minutes ago, TrueBull said:

I think we’re at cross purposes here. So, for the scores that made up the 2025 season, from that sky sports link, Toulouse were on 13.58 and as a minimum, have picked up another 0.25. And when the scores for 2026 are released on 16th October, they will likely be around 14, max. 
 

Bradford for 2025, were on 12.15. From the public info so far this year, Bradford seem to have picked up a full point in facilities, 0.5 in finance and 0.37 in performance, with losing the 9th place from 2022 and replacing it with a3rd place this year. So will be about 14,  14.10 points. Which is why the board are quietly confident for 16th October that they have a good chance for 12th place. 

It doesn’t really matter what the score was last year, but the improvement for this year. 

Can I ask where the full point for facilities and half a point for finance comes from? 

[The 4 of Us]

Just now, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Can I ask where the full point for facilities and half a point for finance comes from? 

Jet washing the terraces and finding the ground lease was worth a multiple more than it cost them.

[The Future is League]

39 minutes ago, TrueBull said:

I think we’re at cross purposes here. So, for the scores that made up the 2025 season, from that sky sports link, Toulouse were on 13.58 and as a minimum, have picked up another 0.25. And when the scores for 2026 are released on 16th October, they will likely be around 14, max. 
 

Bradford for 2025, were on 12.15. From the public info so far this year, Bradford seem to have picked up a full point in facilities, 0.5 in finance and 0.37 in performance, with losing the 9th place from 2022 and replacing it with a3rd place this year. So will be about 14,  14.10 points. Which is why the board are quietly confident for 16th October that they have a good chance for 12th place. 

It doesn’t really matter what the score was last year, but the improvement for this year. 

Full point for facilities. Are you serious.

[The Future is League]

9 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Can I ask where the full point for facilities and half a point for finance comes from? 

I'm surprised that the ground hasn't been shut down for safety reasons by the health and safety officer, and I'm serious

[TrueBull]

7 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Can I ask where the full point for facilities and half a point for finance comes from? 

LED advertising , big screen, primacy of tenure, directors box on half way line, media gantry. All new this year. No losses in the last 3 years of accounts, positive balance sheet. Performance improvement, as noted. 3x 3rd places, losing the 9th place from 3 years ago. 

[The 4 of Us]

23 minutes ago, TrueBull said:

LED advertising , big screen, primacy of tenure, directors box on half way line, media gantry. All new this year. No losses in the last 3 years of accounts, positive balance sheet. Performance improvement, as noted. 3x 3rd places, losing the 9th place from 3 years ago. 

Nige is it you? 

[Spidey]

11 hours ago, TrueBull said:

LED advertising , big screen, primacy of tenure, directors box on half way line, media gantry. All new this year. No losses in the last 3 years of accounts, positive balance sheet. Performance improvement, as noted. 3x 3rd places, losing the 9th place from 3 years ago. 

Is the big screen actually in place now?  Didn't it go missing after installation?

[TrueBull]

39 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Is the big screen actually in place now?  Didn't it go missing after installation?

Yes, and needed repair after a storm a few weeks after it was fitted. 
 

Thankfully, you haven’t asked about the LED advertising 

[Bull Mania]

On 05/10/2025 at 20:55, The 4 of Us said:

On another note, Toulouse, York and London were all ahead of Bradford on the 2025 grading announcement. If Toulouse winning gives them another .25 points and Salford haven’t applied to get in, I can see how the others overtake them.

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12204/13238337/img-gradings-explained

 

Because those scores are from 12 months ago?

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

4 hours ago, TrueBull said:

Yes, and needed repair after a storm a few weeks after it was fitted. 
 

Thankfully, you haven’t asked about the LED advertising 

Would that be the LED advertising boards that were there on 14th September but had disappeared by the 19th?