14-team Super League expansion caveat addressed as IMG chief discusses grading tweaks

IMG's VP of sports management, Matt Dwyer, says expansion of the Super League is not guaranteed, even if more than twelve clubs obtain Category A grades. The 2024 gradings saw nine clubs land the highest grade possible, with others aspiring to get there soon.

Expansion of Super League to a 14-team competition is a regular point of discussion and with more clubs reaching the highest mark earlier than anticipated, it has seen renewed support, certainly among the sport's fanbase.

However, Dwyer, who played a key role in the creation of the grading system, insists it has never been promised and suggested that the possibility of it is largely down to funding, with the sport's broadcast revenue down again in the most recent negotiations.

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The current deal runs until the end of the 2026 season and Dwyer suggested that could be the appropriate time to have those conversations, given that projections show that is when more clubs are likely to reach Grade A.

"I'm not sure if we've said this publicly, but we've said it with clubs," Dwyer said. "There was always an asterisk next to it, we get to 12 Category A clubs and we then look to expand: if the game can afford it. I'm happy to say that we've got to more Category A clubs quicker than I expected, and that's great.

"There's a couple of clubs you can really see have embraced it, Wakefield being a great example. They went away, sat down and worked out what they had to do to get up to the highest level.

"The intention is still expansion but that asterisk remains. Step one, let's get to 12 Category A clubs. Step two, we've always said we want to expand but we need to see where we're sitting from a financial point of view and it will probably be after we do the next renewal for the media rights deal anyway given current projections, so we have a season or two to sort that out."

Dwyer was keen to clarify that making clubs reach Grade A was not the end goal for the system, but rather a benchmark in their long-term vision.

"If I look back at it now, I would consider whether Category A is the right way because it gives this idea that it's the pinnacle of rugby league and where we want everyone to be and that's the end. If I was going back in time, I don't know what I'd call it but perhaps Level One, with a view to going to Level Five. But we want to get them first and get them to level two in the future.

"Perhaps that's a lebelling thing but are the clubs trying to move in this direction and if you look at Wakefield and Castleford's scores, it shows they're doing that."

Dwyer also admitted tweaks to the system are required.

"The main part of it, we want to try and keep the goalposts in the same position to allow every club to work towards Category A standards to start with. Having said that, there are probably a couple of things we need to tweak having seen how it played out. There's a couple of things changed that we didn't foresee; an example being Super League+ and every game on Sky.

"So there's a few things we need to tweak but we don't want to keep changing the goalposts. We want to get them all to that sort of level but after that, this isn't the end. We've seen some feedback around how can Club X be Cat A, that's just a term I made up that reflects a certain amount of criteria we wanted to get a club to. Once we're at that level and we've got the next step to take.

"It's not a case of Category A, everything is solved, it's about getting everyone up to this standard first and continue to develop from there, but let's get everyone to that standard first."

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