The 12 current clubs in English men's rugby league’s top-flight Super League competition have voted to expand the division to 14 teams from the 2026 campaign onwards.
Which two clubs will enter the competition will be decided by a hybrid method taking into account both an independent panel, and the club grading system that was instituted in 2024 by the league’s long-term commercial partner IMG.
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Under those rules, the Super League is currently composed of the 12 sides – 11 English and one French – with the best grades each season, and from 2026, the top 12 graded clubs will be joined by those two with the next best gradings from the second-tier Championship.
The panel will be chaired by Jonathan Caine, a recent appointee to the Rugby Football League board of directors, as well as the sub-committee in charge of the sport’s current strategic review.
This opens the door to the likes of Toulouse Olympique and London Broncos, the two top-rated Championship clubs under grading at the end of the 2024 campaign, which may be front-runners to join the league.
The Broncos previously competed in the Super League between 1996 and 2014, then again in 2019 and 2024, suffering immediate relegation on both occasions.
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By GlobalDataAs the only team in England’s South East (and the nation’s capital) in either the Super League or Championship, the Broncos may be able to rely on their wide catchment area to support their bid.
The addition of Toulouse Olympique, in particular, could serve to aid the competition’s expansion goals, with France a target market for the competition (Super League already has one French side in the form of Catalans Dragons).
This is best exemplified by the league’s plans to relocate a game to Paris, France, in 2026, which will feature current champions Wigan Warriors against Catalans Dragons to mark the 30th anniversary of the Super League’s formation.
Two other Championship clubs, York Knights and Bradford Bulls, boast gradings of over 12 points, also putting them in contention for promotion to the Super League as well, should either London Broncos or Toulouse Olympique fail to secure a panel recommendation.
All of this, however, hinges on the panel judging that there are indeed two clubs worthy of gaining promotion under the grading criteria.
The Super League last featured 14 teams in the 2014 season, which was the last of three campaigns to use a licensing system, after which the league returned to promotion and relegation around a 12-team league.
The 2025 Super League season began in mid-February and will run through to the Grand Final in Manchester on October 11.
