A firm supporter of Keighley Cougars’ stance against the IMG ‘Reimagining Rugby League’ proposals, Keighley MP Robbie Moore has suggested that the fact voting rights are weighted to favour Super League clubs over those below the top tier is unfair.

The big vote on whether to pass the proposals takes place on April 19, and Moore is indeed correct that Super League clubs will have more weight, though the RFL have responded by confirming the current system dates back to 2006.

Neither Catalans or Toulouse have a vote on the IMG proposals, as they are not RFL council members. West Wales Raiders, despite withdrawing from League One ahead of the 2023 season, retain their right to vote as they remain members.

In total, there are 35 clubs that can vote – 11 English Super League clubs, 13 English Championship clubs, the current 10 League One clubs plus the Raiders.

There are seven other organisations from the community game that have a vote – Tier 4 competitions (NCL and Southern Conference League), Tier 5 competitions (such as North West Men’s League), Youth and Junior Leagues, Armed Forces, BARLA, Schools Rugby League and Universities and Colleges.

Although that equals 42, the total vote number will be 55.

This is because the Super League clubs are considered as one block, with the Championship and League One clubs considered as another block.

As Championship and League One hold 24 votes together, it means the Super League clubs all effectively get two votes each to match the 24 figure.

This was introduced when Championship and League One were branded together as National Leagues. With only 11 English clubs in the top flight currently, the vote number for each Super League club increases slightly to 2.18.

Those two lots of 24 and the seven from the community game give the total of 55.

The current voting system was brought in to ensure that one block couldn’t gain a majority of votes, without support from other areas.

While a majority of 28 is required to pass the vote, it must include four from each block – so at least four Championship or League One clubs would need to vote for the proposals for them to go through, even if every Super League club did pass them too.