RFL Championship
The Rugby Football League Championship, 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.
The league consists of 14 teams, with the winner decided by a playoff. The current champions are Wakefield Trinity, winners of the 2024 season after beating Toulouse Olympique in the Championship Grand Final.
In 2026, the Championship will merge 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
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 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 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 to determine which four of the clubs will compete in Super League the following year.
- The remaining 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
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. 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
- ''Seat capacity for other sports, concerts and events may differ.''
Structure
Regular season
As envisaged of the 2026 competition, there are 20 clubs in the Championship. During the course of the season 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, points difference, points scored. The team finishing top at the end of the regular season is awarded the League Leaders Shield.
The 2026 season will be slightly differently. The exclusion of Featherstone Rovers came after the fixture list had been published. Rather than re-arrange all fixtures, the games that would have involved Featherstone were vacated and those clubs scheduled to play Featherstone play two games less. The Championship table being ranked on 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:
| Period | Sponsor | Name |
| 2003–2008 | Nuffield | LHF Healthplan National League 1 |
| 2009–2012 | Co-operative Group | Co-operative Championship |
| 2013–2017 | Kingstone Press Cider | Kingstone Press Championship |
| 2018–present | Betfred | Betfred Championship |
The official rugby ball supplier is Steeden.
Media
TV
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.