Super League coach calls for IMG gradings change and makes bold ‘illegal’ admission

Ben Olawumi
Paul Rowley

Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley

Salford Red Devils boss Paul Rowley insists performance needs to count for more on the IMG gradings, and has said that in any other walk of life, the decision makers’ actions could well be deemed illegal.

The Red Devils are one of just three clubs who will compete in Super League in 2025 without Grade A status having received a score of 13.97 out of 20 from IMG heading into next year.

That score actually sees them sit bottom of the pile in terms of the 2025 Super League clubs, with 11th-placed Huddersfield Giants sat 0.51 points ahead of them.

Under Rowley’s tutelage, Salford have finished 6th, 7th and 4th in the last three seasons – the barometer by which clubs’ ‘performance’ score is calculated by IMG. Performance counts for only five points out of the total 20 available though.

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Super League coach calls for IMG gradings change and makes bold ‘illegal’ admission

And it’s that which doesn’t sit right with the Red Devils head coach, who will move into a Director of Rugby role at the club from 2026 with current assistant Kurt Haggerty to take the coaching reins.

Salford have already released a club statement expressing their concerns over the grading criteria, and speaking on BBC Radio Manchester during Sunday’s international clash between England and Samoa, Rowley shared his views.

The 49-year-old said: “I love the fact that they’re raising standards.

“The teams that have gone from B’s to A’s have worked tremendously hard on all of their gradings, so I don’t bemoan that at all.

“I just think the weighting is not in favour of performance, nowhere near enough. It should be the majority of it, in my opinion.

“I’d liked to have seen, personally, let’s just go 50% of the whole grade based on performance and then the other 50% accumulated from the facets you’ve just mentioned previously (Fandom, Finance, Stadium and Community).

“But on performance, again, we can stomach it as athletes if you get relegated on performance. It’s hard to take and it still crushes your dreams, your mortgages, your weddings, your holidays, your kids’ education.

“We’re human beings, everybody, and we’re put in a time bomb. The boards now of every club that’s on (a grade) B, there’s effectively now a ticking time bomb.

“We can say, ‘well it’s up to the clubs, it’s their responsibility to upgrade and do whatever – get the screen, get the pixels’, whatever that may be.

“But still, 80 to 90 percent of the business in terms of numbers doesn’t have enough influence on their own destiny. That can’t be right in any walk of life.”

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‘It seems not only inhumane and immoral, but somebody somewhere strikes me as slightly being, in any other walk of life, illegal’

With on-field performance worth up to five points, the remaining 15 IMG points can be earned by clubs as follows:

  • Fandom (5 points): Includes match attendance, TV viewership, social media following, and website visits.
  • Finance (4.5 points): Assessed on profitability, financial stability, and a diversification of revenue streams.
  • Stadium (3 points): Stadium and other facilities would be assessed.
  • Community (2.5 points): Assessed fanbase vs fanbase potential, as well as assessing community and charity work.

Clubs need a minimum of 15 points to earn Grade A status, so Salford – as things stand – are 1.03 points off obtaining it.

In his discussion with BBC Radio Manchester commentators Trevor Hunt and Jack Dearden, Rowley continued: “You imagine Trevor and Jack doing a great job on radio, but then you bring in two other guys because you just don’t like where they live or the house that they live in.

“Their job’s not redundant, you can’t do that. In a walk of life, it seems not only inhumane and immoral, but somebody somewhere strikes me as slightly being, in any other walk of life, illegal.

“I’m just a throwing a bit of controversy, but that’s my initial reaction.

“I love the upgrades, don’t get me wrong. I love the fact that we want to increase them and improve everything across the game, but I just worry about the people and the human beings it hurts.”

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