OLDHAM will find out their IMG grading next month amid growing frustration with the framework, writes Kasey Smith.

Club’s submitted their grading data capture to the RFL and IMG last week, with scores set to go live on October 23.

The Roughyeds are expected to improve on last year’s grade C score of 7.39, thanks to their title victory, and a record year in terms of social media engagement (where a maximum of 1.5 points are on offer).

However, the framework has come under criticism because Super League spots are now determined by a club’s grading rather than on-field performances, which now account for only a quarter of the score

“Where is the aspiration to make it to the top?” said RFL President and Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle in an interview with BBC Radio Manchester at Boundary Park last week.

“Surely it’s got to be about the ability of players to win games to get promotion. It shouldn’t be because you’ve got money in the bank.

“If you take that up and down away, what’s the resort of the season to you when you’ve already picked out your top six teams?”

Back in 2022, The Rugby Football League announced a 12-year partnership with IMG, which calls itself a global sports and culture company, to “reimagine” the sport.

Part of the reimagination plan, costing £450,000 a year, is to reward off-field activities with a maximum of 20 points on offer with gradings determining the twelve spots in Super League.

The framework has faced criticism for its rigid requirements, which demand that stadium facilities meet all ten criteria to earn maximum points – otherwise, they receive the lowest possible score.

Considering club’s are also graded based on how full their stadium is, Oldham’s move from Whitebank to Boundary Park may not have been as advantageous – for the IMG grading, at least – as it initially appeared.

Whether Boundary Park meets the ten requirements to receive the maximum points total of 1.5 – which includes a 15m long by 2m wide TV gantry as well as a 40-seat director’s box separated from the public by a physical barrier – remains to be seen.

And while Oldham have more than doubled their attendance average this year to 1,618, the figure is based on a three-year average and will therefore receive the lowest available points.

With the ever-growing voices of dissent – including Warrington Wolves’ CEO Karl Fitzpatrick, who said IMG ‘must do better’ at a media conference back in July – perhaps the RFL’s 12-year partnership, currently in its infancy, may be short-lived.