Leeds rugby league club slam 'unjust' grading system, urge RFL to restore promotion & relegation
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Supporter-owned Hunslet RLFC voted against the process being introduced by the RFL and strategic partners IMG and chief executive Neil Hampshire has called for it to be scrapped.
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Hide AdAll clubs will be given a score out of 20 based on five categories: on-field performance, fandom, finances, stadium and community. Fifteen marks will secure an A grading and guaranteed place in Betfred Super League.
Remaining places will go to the best-ranked grade B sides. Indicative gradings last year rated Hunslet - who play in the third tier League One - 29th out of the 35 RFL clubs, with a grade C score of 6.94.
In a message to fans, Hampshire described the process as “both time consuming and, I have to say, pretty demoralising when you realise it would be almost impossible for a club like ours to ever achieve grade A status”. He said: “As it is, I think we could now struggle to move into grade B this year and, with potential increases to social media targets for 2025, we may well be a Grade C club for some time to come yet.
“However, the reality is
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Hide Adthis process has no impact internally as we will continue to grow our business in a focussed and sustainable way. It also doesn’t deny us any opportunity for promotion into the Championship either.
“The main consequence is what the grade portrays to the wider public, that we are a club not at the required standard. But that’s the wrong message to send.”
Hampshire insisted: “We are a progressive club. We play in a fairly modern stadium [and] we are sourcing new income streams through proactive relationships with South Leeds FC and Hunslet Wolves RFC.
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Hide Ad“We are working with them to create a sports hub at South Leeds Stadium that will benefit the local community. We are also in talks with the council around other potential income stream opportunities and in positive discussions with potential new sponsors as we look to make that step change that will hopefully see us gain promotion to the Championship.
“Yet under the IMG scoring process, particularly on the facilities side, we will be simply marked down for not meeting requirements on issues which have very little significance in the large scheme of things. In fact, some of those requirements actually go against our ethos as a supporter-owned club.
“That’s the realistic downside of this process, and to be honest. I’ve yet to see any upside. I continue to raise our concerns directly with the RFL and I have offered to be part of any meaningful working group that may be set up to make the process fit for purpose.”
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Hide AdHampshire vowed the club aren’t opposed to improving standards, but stressed: “I don’t believe sport was ever meant to be judged primarily in that way. Performance on the field should be paramount.
“Promotion and relegation are - and always will be - the life blood of British sport and we should embrace that and see it as a strength rather than try to consider it as some kind of hindrance that requires a level of immunity. If you take away hopes and dreams then what’s left?
“Let’s also not forget that when IMG undertook their game-wide consultation that led to the creation of the grading system, 76 per cent of fans actually wanted to retain promotion and relegation across the sport, so the support is there on the terraces. It’s now elsewhere too.
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Hide Ad“Sir Lindsey Hoyle, the current RFL president, [has] expressed the same view. I’d strongly urge the RFL to listen to him carefully. We remain proud to be one of the few clubs that voted against what we see as an unjust system and, in its current guise, we would absolutely do so again.”
Hunslet finished fourth in League One and visit Rochdale Hornets, coached by the Parksiders’ former boss Gary Thornton, for a qualifying play-off on Sunday. “I can confirm we will be advised of our 2024 score on September 12 and we will again commit to releasing our full results once the process has been completed across all three leagues in October,” Hampshire said.
“I can only hope this is the last time we use the grading system and that the RFL moves back to supporting and promoting the product on the pitch as its number one priority, rewarding success appropriately, including allowing promotion and relegation between Super League and Championship.”
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Hide AdHunslet have first-hand experience of being denied promotion because of off-field issues, after winning the second-tier Grand Final in 1999 under then-chairman Grahame Liles, who died last week. “We lost 1,500 fans almost overnight,” Hampshire recalled.
“They didn’t just disappear from the club, they disappeared from the sport. That’s the stark reality of not rewarding on-field performance in the right way. It was also the beginning of the end of Grahame’s reign as chairman as the experience left him devastated.
“The last time I spoke to Grahame, he asked me about the grading system. When I explained it he said ‘why are they always trying to protect the clubs at the top table? Haven’t they learned anything in the last 25 years’?”
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