Rugby Football League award club zero IMG points as director labels it ‘targeted attempt to silence and punish’

The IMG gradings will be confirmed in just over a week and one club have now claimed that they have had it confirmed to them by the Rugby Football League that they’ll score zero.

Keighley Cougars, who spent the 2025 season in League One, have released a statement to ‘express deep disappointment’ as they announce that the Rugby Football League (RFL) have awarded the club zero points in their 2025 IMG grading process.

That comes as a result of a late submission of data, though the club claim that submission was less than 24 hours late as they explained that the recent departure of their general manager led to an oversight.

In a club statement, managing director Kaue Garcia claimed that the decision was ‘retaliatory and targeted’ given Keighley’s very vocal opposition when the IMG grading criteria was introduced.

At the time, the Cougars were making statements about wanting to enter Super League through their on-field ambitions, however, the introduction of grading ended any immediate hopes of that.

Keighley Cougars announce IMG score as they hit out at Rugby Football League

Having been relegated from the Championship in that 2023 season, the Cougars have spent two years in League One with their most recent seeing them finish ninth of ten sides.

Pairing that poor season on-field with their confirmed score of zero IMG points, it’s been a bad year for the Cougars but director Garcia has claimed that it’s targeted and disproportionate, using examples of late entries in 2024 to support that.

“This decision feels very retaliatory and targeted at us — a club that has been openly vocal in questioning IMG and the direction of the sport,” Garcia claimed.

“It’s especially disappointing given the RFL’s past approach, where they worked with both Whitehaven and Batley in 2024 and allowed them to submit their data past the deadline, issuing provisional scores. This inconsistency only reinforces our feeling that we have been unfairly treated.”

Garcia confirmed that he had spoken with Batley Bulldogs’ owner Kevin Nicholas with Nicholas purportedly expressing ‘surprise at how harshly’ the Cougars had been treated for a late submission of under 24 hours, relative to Batley’s week late submission.

Having jumped from 30th to 19th on IMG gradings between the provisional and the first official scores in 2024, it’s evident that the Cougars were a side adhering to the principles and improving their practices, if not their results on-field.

Despite that, they claim this decision from the RFL is targeted and comes in light of recent comments that Garcia and fellow owner Ryan O’Neill made on BBC Radio West Yorkshire, in which the pair ‘raised concerns about the sport’s governance’.

“We can’t help but feel that this is a targeted attempt to silence and punish us,” said Garcia.

“The RFL frequently promotes collaboration and transparency with its member clubs — but this decision does the exact opposite. It is punitive, inconsistent, and goes against the spirit of fair play.”

The club’s statement concluded: “The Keighley Cougars remain committed to transparency, accountability, and the continued development of the sport, despite this attempt of punishing us.”

Serious About Rugby League have asked the RFL for comment to confirm if a zero score has been handed down to the Cougars.

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