Super League to expand to 14 teams with method to decide new clubs explained
Super League will become a 14-team competition from 2026 following a vote from the current 12 clubs.
The clubs met at AMT Headingley on Monday afternoon for a presentation by RFL chair Nigel Wood and his group, who are undergoing the well-publicised strategic review.
At the meeting in Leeds, the 12 existing Super League clubs voted to expand the competition to 14 teams for the 2026 season, subject to conditions.
There will be two different methods of selection comprising the 14 teams that will play in Super League in 2026. IMG gradings will dictate the 12 highest clubs, and they will be in Super League next season when this year’s gradings are published.
However, there will be an independent panel put together that will include Wood’s strategic review sub-committee, which will decide the other two clubs from outside the top 12 in the IMG grading model.
Ambitious Championship clubs such as London Broncos, York Knights, Toulouse Olympique, Bradford Bulls and Oldham have made their feelings pretty clear that they want to be in Super League, so they will now be able to put a case together to the independent panel.
A statement from Super League read: “The 12 existing Betfred Super League clubs have today voted to extend the competition to 14 teams for the 2026 season, subject to conditions.
“This would be done by combining the Club Grading System introduced to determine Super League membership as part of the sport’s long-term strategic partnership with IMG in 2022, with an independent panel to be chaired by Lord Jonathan Caine, who was recently elected as a member of the Rugby Football League Board, and the Strategic Review Sub-Committee.
“The top 12 clubs under grading at the conclusion of the 2025 domestic season will therefore be joined by two clubs recommended by that panel – provided the panel judges there are two applications of sufficient merit against the set criteria.
“Further details of the composition of the panel and the timing of the process will be confirmed in due course.
“The Super League clubs have the right to determine the number of the clubs in the competition. The possibility of immediate expansion to 14 clubs was one of a number of options put to a meeting of the existing 12 clubs at AMT Headingley on Monday afternoon.”