Featherstone Rovers remain hopeful despite 18th place in IMG grading

Rovers were granted a Grade B licence in the new points system, but finished in 18th place with a 10.75 score.

That put them behind nine clubs given a Grade A licence and the three best scoring Grade B teams who will be in Super League in 2025.

Featherstone are also behind Toulouse, London Broncos, York, Bradford Bulls and Barrow Raiders who they will compete against in the Championship.

But they have taken some encouragement as they have stayed ahead of 17 clubs despite enduring a difficult year that has seen financial problems impacting their score.

Rovers responded to the IMG announcement by putting out a statement in which they said: “After the extremely challenging year the club has faced, the fact that our position has remained unchanged is wholly down to our ownership of our own ground and its excellent facilities, our strong support base and digital engagement numbers, our strong performance over the last three years and for our strong work in the community.

"We take great heart from the movement of some clubs locally to Grade A status and this gives up plenty of optimism with our very solid base position that as we continue to make on and off field improvements we can quickly make progress in the future to put ourselves in a position to enter Super League.

"The simple message to our supporters is keep backing the club in good numbers.

"We know we have put together a very strong team for 2025, which will be highly competitive.

"We have exciting plans off the field with the further development of our stadium and land and we know that as we continue to do the right things, we will move up these rankings.

“Our plan to deliver Grade A status will be driven by the club’s new board and we will share with our supporters as we approach the 2025 season.”