RFL Championship

The Rugby Football League Championship, (known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second highest division of rugby league in Britain .

Introduced in 2003 as National League One, it replaced the existing Second Division. It was rebranded as the Championship in 2009.

Until the end of the 2025 season the league consisted of 13 or 14 teams, with the winner decided by a playoff. Toulouse Olympique were winners of the 2025 season after beating York Knights in the Championship Grand Final.

In 2026, the Championship merged with League One, thus seeing an expansion to 21 teams. This was catalysed by Super League's expansion from 12 to 14 teams also in 2026 which would see two clubs promoted from the Championship without replacement and would have left the Championship with only 11 clubs.

History

1902–1973: Establishment and regular competition

Second division rugby league competitions have been played at various times since 1902, and have been in place annually since 1973. When Super League began in 1996, the second division continued to operate a system of promotion and relegation with the new competition. In 1999, the second-tier competition below the Super League was renamed the Northern Ford Premiership (NFP) when Northern Ford Dealers acquired the naming rights.

2002–2008: National Leagues

In 2003, the NFP was re-organised into National Leagues One and Two. Teams that finished in the top ten league positions of the 2002 Northern Ford Premiership joined National League One and the bottom eight joined National League Two. They were joined by London Skolars from the Rugby League Conference, who entered National League Two, and York City Knights, who replaced the defunct York Wasps (who had folded mid-season in 2002) and also joined National League Two in 2003, creating two ten-team leagues which operated a system of promotion and relegation between themselves while also maintaining the promotion and relegation between National League One and Super League.

At the same time, National League Three was created with teams from the Rugby League Conference and from the British Amateur Rugby League Association amateur leagues. It was intended that there would be promotion and relegation between National League Two and National League Three when League Three became more established, however this never eventuated.

2009–2014: Championship

In 2009 Super League was expanded to 14 teams, with two additional teams being promoted from National League One. In turn, two additional teams were promoted from National League Two to National League One at the end of the 2008 season, reducing the number of teams in National League Two to 10. National Leagues One and Two were then rebranded as the Championship and Championship 1 respectively, with the change being implemented in time for the 2009 season. Championship 1 was later rebranded to League 1. During this period, a system of licensing was put in place which meant there was no automatic system of promotion and relegation between the Championship and Super League, although promotion and relegation continued between the Championship and League 1. Widnes Vikings were promoted to Super League from the Championship via the licensing system in 2011.

The record crowd for a club game at this level of competition was set in 2017 at KCOM Craven Park for the opening fixture of the season between Hull Kingston Rovers and Bradford Bulls with Rovers winning 54–24 in front of a crowd of 8,817. The crowd record for regular season attendance was also broken in 2008 with an average of 2,205 spectators at each game.

2015–2018: Super 8s

In 2013, Super League clubs agreed to reduce the number of clubs in the competition to 12 and return to an amended system of promotion and relegation with a 12-club Championship competition. These changes came into effect for the 2015 season.

Under the amended structure, the 12 Super League and 12 Championship clubs play a regular season of 23 rounds, including a Magic Weekend for both divisions. Following the conclusion of their regular league seasons, the 24 clubs then compete in a play-off series where they split into 3 divisions of 8 based upon league position:

• The bottom 4 Super League clubs and the top 4 Championship clubs compete in The Qualifiers. They play each other once (either home or away) to determine which four of the clubs will compete in Super League the following year.
• The remaining (bottom 8) Championship clubs compete for the Championship Shield and to avoid relegation to League 1. Two clubs will be relegated each year.

2019–2023: Return of playoffs

On 14 September 2018, an EGM was called to discuss the future of the sport and a change in structure, as the clubs were in favour of scrapping the Super 8s in favour of a more conventional structure. Two proposals were put forward: one by Super League and one by the Championship and League 1;

Super League proposal: The Super League proposed staying with 12 teams who play each other home and away plus Magic Weekend and 6 loop fixtures (29 games). They also proposed a return to a top-5 playoff and the 12th placed team being relegated.

Championship & League 1 proposal: The alternative proposal was that Super League would expand to 14 clubs playing 29 games ending with a top-5 playoff. The team finishing 14th would be relegated and 13th would play 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the Championship in a relegation playoff.

After a vote, the Super League proposal was voted through was implemented for the 2019 season. The Championship clubs then voted for a top 5 playoff being used to decide which team will be promoted to Super League.

2024–2025: Introduction of grading

From 2024 there was no automatic promotion from the Championship to Super League. Membership of Super League was determined entirely by IMG grading.

The grading system made no effect on the make-up of Super League for 2025 as the Championship winners, Wakefield Trinity, were placed 8th in the grading list - so would have been promoted under the previous system. The 2025 season saw Bradford Bulls and two other highest rated IMG clubs promoted to the Betfred Super League York Knights and Toulouse Olympique. Salford Red Devils were relegated to the Championship.

2026: merger with League One

At the end of 2025 the Championship was merged with League One into a 21 team division. In early January 2026 Featherstone Rovers were ejected from the Rugby Football League due to the club being in an extended period of administration reducing the number of clubs in the league to 20. By the start of the season at the end of January, there was no decision on whether there would be any automatic promotion and relegation between Super League and the Championship or whether entry to Super league is entirely on IMG grading. The 2026 Championship features a play-off system between the top ten clubs, details of which were released on 16 January.

Clubs

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Structure

Regular season

As envisaged for the 2026 competition, there are 20 clubs in the Championship. During the course of the season (usually from January to September) each club plays 12 home games, and 12 away games. Each club will play 12 teams in one season, 10 of which will be determined by league position from the previous season, while the remaining two teams will be determined based on local rivalries and geographic proximity.

Teams receive two points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss.

Teams are ranked by competition points, then points difference (points scored less points conceded), then points scored. The team finishing top at the end of the regular season is awarded the League Leaders Shield.

The 2026 season was affected by the exclusion of Featherstone Rovers after the fixture list had been published. Initially, rather than re-arrange all fixtures, the games that would have involved Featherstone were vacated and those clubs scheduled to play Featherstone would play two games fewer. The Championship table would have been ranked on win percentage. This decision was reversed and replacement fixtures were scheduled for clubs that had been due to play Featherstone. As a result, all clubs will still play 24 matches and competition points will decide the table rather than win percentage.

Play-offs

The play-offs have had various formats. Currently once every club has played all 24 games, the top ten teams qualify for the playoffs.

The 2026 play-offs will begin on the first weekend of September, and will conclude with the Grand Final, in the first weekend of October.

Results

The champions of the Championship are determined by a playoff series at the end of the regular season. The team at the top of the league table at the end of regular season is awarded the League Leaders’ Shield. This has been the case for all but the four seasons of the Super 8s era where the league leaders were declared Champions and promotion was determined by The Qualifiers.

Winners

Sponsor

The Championship has been sponsored four times since its inception in 2003. Betfred are the current title sponsor.

The title sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. There have been seven different title sponsors since the league's formation:

The official rugby ball supplier is Steeden.

Media

TV

Sky Sports and Premier Sports shared the TV rights to the Championship between 2008 and 2012. After Sky only showed the Championship and Championship 1 Grand Finals while games were broadcast on Premier Sports until 2013. There was no TV coverage on the Championship in 2014. In 2015 Sky Sports won the rights to show the Championship including The Summer Bash, Championship Shield and The Qualifiers in a seven-year deal.

A two-year broadcast deal with Premier Sports for 2022 and 2023 was signed at the end of 2021. Premier show a live match every Monday as well as all seven matches from the Summer Bash. The deal also includes the broadcasting rights to play-off matches and the Million Pound Game.

Premier Sports became part of Viaplay late in 2022 and was marketed as Viaplay Sports for the 2023 season.

Radio

Regional radio stations have coverage of the Championship clubs but mostly only cover Super League clubs in the same area and give updates of Championship scores and results.

Academies

Reserve League

In 2014 and 2015 Super League clubs were unhappy with the Dual registration system and wanted to form an Under 23 reserve leagues between the Under 19s and 1st team. Wigan, Warrington and St Helens were the first teams to propose the return of the reserve league where players could move from the under 19s and play with professional players before playing in the 1st team. A reserve league was set up in 2016 with a mixture of Super League, Championship and League 1 teams.[citation needed]

Dual registration

Clubs in both the Super League and the Championships benefit from the new dual registration system which was introduced for the 2013 season. The new system is intended to complement the existing player loan system.

Dual registration refers to an arrangement between clubs whereby a player continues to be registered to his current Super League club and is also registered to play for a club in the Championship.

The dual registration scheme was abandoned in 2025.

Match officials

All rugby league matches are governed by the laws set out by the RFL; these laws are enforced by match officials. Former Super League and International Referee Phil Bentham is the current head of the Match Officials Department.

See also

• British rugby league system
• Super League
• Rugby League Conference
• Northern Ford Premiership
• Championship Cup
• Betfred League 1
• List of professional sports teams in the United Kingdom

Notes

External links