‘OPTIONS’ have been put forward to the RFL Council about tweaking the performance category in IMG’s new grading system.
At present, performance is given just a 25 percent weighting in the five pillars of IMG’s system alongside fandom and finance.
As such, new Championship side Oldham, who were promoted from League One in 2024 following a brilliant year in the third tier, were awarded just 0.1 points for winning the League One title.
The Roughyeds were given just 7 points under the IMG grading scores released last month and the club even lost points following its move back to Boundary Park because of utilisation points.
Now, managing director Mike Ford has called for greater weighting on the performance aspect.
“The one thing that me and Bill (Quinn, Oldham’s owner and chairman) are adamant on and is a big thing with other council members is that at the moment, it’s all to do with how many points you collect,” Ford told Roughyeds TV.
“Although we support IMG and what it’s doing with your facilities, your finances and your community, the one thing that is very flawed is the weighted towards performance points.
“The points you get playing on the field is not weighted enough. For example, last year we got 0.1 of a point for winning League One and there are 20 points to go for. For winning the Championship, you get a quarter of a point. We believe that on the field should be a lot more.”
And Ford even went as far as putting forward ‘options’ about tweaking the IMG performance pillar in last week’s RFL Council meeting.
“Traditionally no matter what people say about American Football and NRL where there’s no relegation, in England promotion and relegation is in our DNA,” Ford continued.
“We have stakeholders in the stands, sponsors, a guy in Bill putting all his money in and we don’t want him walking away because we can’t get promoted on the field.
“I think that is a fair marker and the common man in the stands will understand that, if you win on the field you get rewarded. We put a few options to the council last Wednesday on how we feel it can work.”
Watch this space!
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