LEIGH LEOPARDS owner Derek Beaumont believes that Bradford Bulls rather than Toulouse Olympique should be given the Super League nod if Salford Red Devils fall foul of their financial problems.
Toulouse were given a score of 13.58 in IMG’s system towards the back end of 2024 – that score ensured the French club finished 13th in the overall rankings.
However, Bradford were given a score of 12.15 which saw them finish in 16th – with London Broncos and York Knights sandwiched in between.
With Salford – who were ranked 12th with a score of 13.97 – and their financial predicament dominating headlines, much has been said about what could potentially happen to the Red Devils if an £800,000 hole cannot be filled fast.
If the worst comes to the worst, Beaumont believes that if something does happen to Salford in terms of their relegation, then the powers-that-be should look to Bradford Bulls rather than Toulouse Olympique, despite the latter finishing above the former in the IMG grading scores.
“I just don’t think it is a way to measure a sport, no other sport does it. To get promoted off a spreadsheet or relegated without finishing bottom is madness – they got away with it this time with London,” Beaumont told League Express.
“Let’s say something happened with Salford and they couldn’t continue, you would get Toulouse next in the pecking order. Is that the right thing to do?
“It wouldn’t even cross my mind if I was running the game. Previously they did a grading and application process and Leigh won it – to our detriment because it derailed our plans of where we were heading – but we had a go.
“I would look at Bradford who are the next after Toulouse, I would just jump to putting them in because it gets rid of the travel aspect.”
Beaumont believes that more needs to be done to look at IMG’s scoring system following Salford’s issues.
“You can still have frameworks that decides standards and that measures financial status etc. I don’t want to get into the Salford situation whilst it’s still ongoing.
“But, did they score zero on finance? The answer is no but yet they needed £500,000 just after the grading results so do they know what’s really going on there?
“I just think we can be moving in much better directions. We need to grab the sport and drive it.”
