‘Massive legal situations’ – Derek Beaumont’s Hull FC swipe & IMG claim

Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont has warned IMG about the possibility of legal action being taken when it releases its grading for next season. Just seven clubs were considered to be Grade A clubs by IMG, when the company announced its initial findings at the end of the 2023 Super League campaign.

At the time, the grading would have been enough to see Toulouse Olympique and Wakefield Trinity promoted to the top flight, while Castleford Tigers and London Broncos fell outside the top 12. That would likely be enough to see them relegated should that remain the case this time around.

Beaumont believes Leigh, who were ranked 12th last season, will have done enough to climb to within at least touching distance of being a Grade A club when the new rankings are released and that will be enough for them to be safe heading into 2025 and beyond. To say the Leigh owner isn’t a fan of the system would be an understatement, though, and he has taken a swipe at Hull, who have underperformed since achieving Grade A status.

He also envisages legal battles and full audits taking place should those who miss out on top flight status do so by slender margins.

“At the minute we’ve got a controversial system,” Beaumont told the League Express podcast. “I’ve mentioned the Hull thing, I’m not picking on Hull, but they’ve got rid of players, put the cue in the rack this year, not competitive and don’t feel any threat, which should be there and keeps something vibrant.

“Then you’ve got Castleford, who have fought like hell to get from that situation and they’re mirroring us, they drew at our place, new owner, competing. London, David Hughes has put millions into the game for a long period of time despite – if I was in his shoes and I’d been promoted, I’d have probably spat my dummy and walked out.

“They’re fighting, which is what you do in the sport. We’re probably, in terms of the IMG scoring, safe from relegation with what I know, but despite that we brought Aaron Pene in.”

He continued: “When we submitted our accounts with the financial movements I’d made, this is what’s wrong, my movements on a spreadsheet in terms of what I wrote off as loans and converted into sponsorship to meet the scoring, it made my scoring which I’d left at 1.3 go up to 3.7 in the financial ranks, which put us at 15.05, we lose 0.25 for the Challenge Cup, depending on where we finish that might drop. We’re certainly high enough.

“I think there will be massive legal situations, if you’re a club that is positioned 13th by 0.1 points, you are going to want a full audit of everyone else’s scores. When everything is 0.1 or 0.2 there, it doesn’t bode well.

“Somebody like David Hughes, who is of significant wealth, could get an injunction about what’s going on and the whole thing could be put on ice. Without speaking too much out of turn, there are various owners with similar views on a lot of things, this being one of them. We are meeting to see what we are aligned on and we will take that forward and see where that goes.”