London Broncos owner delivers passionate plea to scrap ‘bizarre’ IMG ruling

London Broncos owner David Hughes has delivered a plea for IMG’s ‘bizarre’ grading system to be scrapped, insisting the capital club haven’t given up hope of being a Super League club in 2025.

The Broncos shocked the rugby league world as they gained promotion via the Championship play-offs last term, beating both Featherstone Rovers and Toulouse Olympique away from home en-route to booking their spot back in the top flight.

2024 is the first season that London have spent in Super League since being relegated on points difference in 2019, but before they’d kicked a ball, their fate of relegation was essentially sealed by IMG.

With the grading system coming into play officially from 2025, where various factors are considered for promotion and relegation instead of just on-field performance, London were placed 24th in the ranking of clubs across the top three tiers.

Notably, that would only just have been enough to see them retain a spot in the Championship, let alone Super League.

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London Broncos owner delivers passionate plea to scrap ‘bizarre’ IMG ruling

Mike Eccles’ side recruited accordingly, with the mantra of relying heavily on local talent with a sprinkling of stars from elsewhere.

But a squad including part-time players has struggled, as most expected, in the top flight – winning just one of their first 19 games.

Sunday afternoon (August 4) sees them take on Catalans Dragons in Round 20, and at half-time of that clash, former Charlton Athletic FC director Hughes – who has been involved with the club since 1996 – made an appearances on Sky Sports.

Hailing from Swinton, Hughes is a dyed-in-the-wool rugby league fan, making his millions as an oil trader.

When asked about what the future held for the Broncos, he said: “You better ask IMG that! I’m not going to comment too much on it. Hopefully it might change a little bit, but we’re up in the air at the moment.

“We’ve not really (given up hope of being a Super League club in 2025). I just hope that we can retract and get away from the IMG ruling, which is bizarre.

“I don’t want to comment too much on it, but it was all based off our last three years where we’ve been down in the Championship.

“We’ve been in Super League for 20 out of the 27 years, and I don’t know how that was assessed.

“I’m not sure who allowed someone to come up with the last three years to give the ratings (gradings).”

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