Salford Red Devils and Swinton Lions have been given their grades as part of Rugby League Commercial and IMG’s ‘Reimagining Rugby League’ strategy.
Sports marketing company IMG have been tasked with rebranding and providing new strategy to assist the growth of Rugby League within England and further afield.
As part of this plan, promotion and relegation will be scrapped in the Super League, with teams gaining their league statuses based on grading on a number of categories.
These categories asses a team’s on-field performance, attendances, catchment area, club finances and their facilities, giving each club a score out of 20, and an A, B or C grade.
The scores of each team were published by the Rugby Football League on Wednesday October 25.
Indicative Club Gradings have been announced pic.twitter.com/1H2jp2gaHi
— Rugby Football League (@TheRFL) October 25, 2023
Salford Red Devils have been graded as a B, with a score of 13.8 out of 20. They rank 8th out of all Rugby League clubs and are the highest of any category B side.
A score of 15 or above is needed to be graded a category A team.
Despite this, the score means that it is highly likely that Salford will retain in its Super League status in 2025 and beyond.
Swinton Lions, who avoided relegation from the RFL Championship last season, scored 7.21 out of 20.
In 26th place, the Lions were the second highest Category C team in the rankings.
In a statement, Tony Sutton, Chief Executive of Rugby Football League said:
“The sport has had to examine itself more closely than ever, at all levels – whether in terms of our central governance, or for our clubs in assessing all areas of their off-field performance.
“The results are heartening, as seven of our clubs already reach the A Grade by reaching the score IMG set as the benchmark, and which we believe should be the level clubs need to achieve in order to confirm their place in our elite competition – and another 17 have earned a B Grade and now know exactly what they need to do to reach the higher level.”
The scores are indicative rankings, and will help clubs assess their strengths and weaknesses before 2024, when the top 12 teams in the table will play in the Super League in 2025.
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