IMG has launched a strong defence of its partnership with British rugby league, stating that progress has been made in reimaging the sport but that the global marketing company ultimately does not run the sport and only makes recommendations for change.
IMG was appointed by Rugby League Commercial and the RFL in early 2022. Last month RL Commercial revealed the full gradings for all the clubs in Super League, the Championship and League 1.
The marketing consultancy has come under criticism from some clubs and fans over its controversial grading system, and its wider role in the sport. But Matt Dwyer, the IMG executive running the rugby league partnership, insists his company is not the key decision-maker but are merely advisors to those in charge.
“I don’t run the sport,” he said.
“IMG doesn’t run the sport. We don’t make the decisions, but what we do is we do the recommendations. Now, some of those recommendations, we then execute for them, because that’s services and the life that we have in our sport.
“But ultimately, all we can do is say this is what we recommend you do and why, and then the sport needs to decide what they can and cannot do, and what they are willing to do and what they’re not willing to do. And then so you go through some of the recommendations.
“Some of those things are being implemented and some of those things haven’t been as you take you can take a real simple example there, which one of them is loop fixtures. Our recommendation was to remove loop fixtures. But there’s a there’s a trade-off of that, because obviously that is home games for the clubs as well.
“And so ultimately, the clubs decided they weren’t in a position to be able to remove loop fixtures at this stage in their path, which I can understand as well. Our role is here is to is to put recommendations out to them and help them execute off the back of those recommendations.
“But ultimately this is RL Commercial that runs this sport, and our job is to be advising them and giving the best support that we can.”
Dwyer said IMG is pleased with the progress being made in British rugby league with every game now being broadcast and produced by Sky, with crowd attendances holding up and with digital engagement increasing almost 100%.
But he admitted it was always going to take time to turn the sport around and conceded he would like the progress to be faster.
“There’s two challenges really – one is that this was always going to be a slow a slow burn, because we’re trying to build an audience here and build a new fan base,” he said. “That’s why we did a 12-year deal with the sport, because this is to be a process.
And the second thing is that there are some things that we haven’t been able to implement and the challenge that we do have as a sport is that the sport doesn’t have a whole lot of money.
“It’s well known that we had a reduction in the broadcaster fee, and so there’s less to spread around for the clubs. And so we’re very much trying to find a balance between ensuring that the clubs get enough money so they can operate out of the centre of distribution, but also at the same time being able to invest in the various areas do to grow the sport.
“So there’s a real balance there. If you ask me, am I happy with the direction we’re heading? Yes. Am I happy with the pace that we’re going at? I’d like to be going faster.”
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