2026 RFL Championship

2026 Betfred Championship
Duration	January – October 2026
Teams	20
← 2025 2027 →

The 2026 RFL Championship (officially known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league club competition. The second tier of the British rugby league system comprises 20 clubs - this is due to the RFL announcing that the Championship and League One competitions were to be combined for the 2026 season. ^[1]

Team changes

Due to the merging of the third tier League One with the Championship into one competition, the Championship increased from 13 clubs to 21 for the 2026 season. ^[2] .

The clubs joining the Championship from League One are:

• Dewsbury Rams
• Goole Vikings
• Keighley Cougars
• Midlands Hurricanes
• Newcastle Thunder
• North Wales Crusaders
• Rochdale Hornets
• Swinton Lions
• Whitehaven
• Workington Town

If the two divisions hadn't merged, North Wales would have been promoted to the Championship anyway as winners of the 2025 RFL League One season. ^[3]

On 16 October 2025 the Bradford Bulls were to be promoted to the Super League and were replaced by the Salford Red Devils. Salford were relegated from Super League via the IMG grading system, as was Bradford's elevation. ^[4] The following day the two teams joining the Super League as a result of its expansion to 14 teams ^[5] were announced. Toulouse Olympique and the York Knights were promoted via an independent panel. ^[6]

On 3 December 2025, Salford was liquidated as a result of unpaid debts to HMRC, and as a result had their membership with the RFL terminated, and would no longer compete in the Championship. ^[7] The RFL hoped that a phoenix club could be created to contest the fixtures, with Salford having until 11 December to submit a viable proposal with a decision scheduled for 17 December. ^{[8] [9]} On 17 December, the timeline was extended. ^[10] On 22 December, a phoenix club was approved to complete in the 2026 Championship. ^{[11] [12]}

Featherstone Rovers went into administration in December 2025 and as no satisfactory bid to take over the club emerged by the week before the start of the season, the RFL removed the club from the 2026 season. ^[13] Rather than rework the fixture list, the championship table will be decided by win percentage rather than competition points. ^[14] The decision not to rework the fixture list was reversed on 19 January when a number of replacement fixtures were announced for the clubs due to have played Featherstone. The decision on the Championship table was also reverted with placings based on competition points. ^[15]

Clubs

Stadiums and locations

2026 Championship clubs

40km
25miles

20

Workington

19

Widnes

18

Whitehaven

17

Swinton

16

Sheffield

15

Salford

14

Rochdale

13

Oldham

12

North Wales

11

Newcastle

10

Midlands

9

London

8

Keighley

7

Hunslet

6

Halifax

5

Goole

4

Doncaster

3

Dewsbury

2

Batley

1

Barrow

   

1

Barrow Raiders

2

Batley Bulldogs

3

Dewsbury Rams

4

Doncaster

5

Goole Vikings

6

Halifax Panthers

7

Hunslet

8

Keighley Cougars

9

London Broncos

10

Midlands Hurricanes

11

Newcastle Thunder

12

North Wales Crusaders

13

Oldham

14

Rochdale Hornets

15

Salford RLFC

16

Sheffield Eagles

17

Swinton Lions

18

Whitehaven

19

Widnes Vikings

20

Workington Town

Team	2025 Position	Head coach	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Grading
Barrow Raiders	9th	Paul Crarey	Ryan Johnston	Craven Park	4,000	B
Batley Bulldogs	12th	James Ford	Alistair Leak, Dane Manning	Mount Pleasant	7,500	B
Dewsbury Rams	4th League One	Paul March	George Senior	Crown Flatt	5,100	C
Doncaster	8th	Richard Horne	Cory Aston	Eco-Power Stadium	15,231	B
Goole Vikings	7th League One	Scott Taylor	Brett Ferres	Victoria Pleasure Grounds	3,000	C
Halifax Panthers	5th	Kyle Eastmond	Ben Crooks	The Shay	10,401	B
Hunslet	13th	Kyle Trout	Billy Jowitt	South Leeds Stadium	3,450	C
Keighley Cougars	9th League One	Danny Burton	Matty Beharrell	Cougar Park	7,800	– [a]
London Broncos	10th	Jason Demetriou	Reagan Campbell-Gillard	Plough Lane	9,215	B
Midlands Hurricanes	5th League One	Mark Dunning	Jon Luke Kirby	Avery Fields	1,500	C
Newcastle Thunder	10th League One	Graham Steadman		Crow Trees Ground	2,000	– [a]
North Wales Crusaders	1st League One	Dean Muir	Josh Eaves	Eirias Stadium	5,500	C
Oldham	4th	Mike Ford (Managing Director)	Matty Wildie	Boundary Park	13,186	B
Rochdale Hornets	6th League One	Gary Thornton	Ross Whitmore	Spotland Stadium	10,249	C
Salford RLFC	12th Super League [b]	Mike Grady	Brad Dwyer	Salford Community Stadium	12,000	B
Sheffield Eagles	11th	Craig Lingard	Joel Farrell	Steel City Stadium	1,320	B
Swinton Lions	3rd League One	Paul Wood	Kenny Baker	Heywood Road	3,387	C
Whitehaven	8th League One	Anthony Murray	Jordan Burns	Recreation Ground	7,500	C
Widnes Vikings	7th	Allan Coleman	Jack Owens	Halton Stadium	13,350	B
Workington Town	2nd League One	Jonty Gorley	Stevie Scholey	Derwent Park	10,000	C

Regular season

Results

Main article: 2026 RFL Championship season results

Table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Oldham	1	1	0	0	44	0	+44	2	League Leaders Shield & advance to Qualifying Finals
2	Barrow Raiders	1	1	0	0	40	0	+40	2	advance to Qualifying Finals
3	London Broncos	1	1	0	0	44	12	+32	2	advance to Qualifying Semi-Finals
4	Newcastle Thunder	1	1	0	0	28	10	+18	2
5	Keighley Cougars	1	1	0	0	32	18	+14	2
6	Dewsbury Rams	1	1	0	0	20	12	+8	2
7	Doncaster	1	1	0	0	19	12	+7	2	advance to Eliminators
8	Sheffield Eagles	1	1	0	0	11	4	+7	2
9	Rochdale Hornets	1	1	0	0	12	8	+4	2
10	Batley Bulldogs	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	North Wales Crusaders	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12	Swinton Lions	1	0	0	1	8	12	−4	0
13	Halifax Panthers	1	0	0	1	12	19	−7	0
14	Whitehaven	1	0	0	1	4	11	−7	0
15	Hunslet	1	0	0	1	12	20	−8	0
16	Goole Vikings	1	0	0	1	18	32	−14	0
17	Midlands Hurricanes	1	0	0	1	10	28	−18	0
18	Widnes Vikings	1	0	0	1	12	44	−32	0
19	Workington Town	1	0	0	1	0	40	−40	0
20	Salford	1	0	0	1	0	44	−44	0

Updated to match(es) played on 18 January 2026. Source: RFL

Play-offs

Main article: 2026 RFL Championship season results § Play-offs

A 10 team play-off structure based on the McIntyre system which allows higher qualified teams to lose more games before being eliminated compared to lower qualified teams was introduced for this year. ^[16]

Team bracket

Qualifying Semi-Finals and Eliminators

Qualifying and Elimination Finals

Sudden Death Play-Offs

Preliminary Finals

Grand Final

QSF1

QF1

3

1

5

Highest ranked winner of QSF1&2

QSF2

QF2

SD1

PF1

4

2

Highest ranked loser of QF1&2

Highest ranked winner of QF1&2

6

-

Lowest ranked winner of QSF1&2

Lowest ranked winner of EF1&2

Lowest ranked winner of SD1&2

Highest ranked winner of PF1&2

E1

EF1

SD2

PF2

Lowest ranked winner of PF1&2

7

Highest ranked loser of QSF1&2

Lowest ranked loser of QF1&2

Lowest ranked winner of QF1&2

10

Lowest ranked winner of E1&2

Highest ranked winner of EF1&2

Highest ranked winner of SD1&2

E2

EF2

8

Lowest ranked loser of QSF1&2

9

Highest ranked winner of E1&2

Notes

1. Not graded as required information was not submitted to the RFL on time
2. Position achieved by a previous iteration of the club

References

1. "New format outside Betfred Super League in 2026". 27 August 2025.
2. "Rugby league's second and third tiers to merge". 27 August 2025.
3. "North Wales Crusaders aim for Super League with 'sustainable' mantra". BBC Sport. 8 September 2025.
4. "Salford Red Devils relegated from Super League after grading announcement". 16 October 2025.
5. "Super League to expand to 14 teams from 2026". 28 July 2025.
6. "Toulouse Olympique and York Knights give Super League golden ticket as London Broncos miss out". 17 October 2025.
7. "Salford Red Devils: Troubled ex-Super League club wound up by High Court". BBC Sport. 3 December 2025.
8. McAllister, Josh (8 December 2025). "RFL confirm bids to relaunch Salford with decision deadlines set". All Out Rugby League.
9. Bower, Aaron (8 December 2025). "Major Salford Red Devils update as deadline passes for ownership". Love Rugby League.
10. McAllister, Josh (17 December 2025). "Salford Red Devils decision pushed back as RFL talks continue". All Out Rugby League.
11. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/articles/clyd8n213pmo
12. https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12040/13486628/salford-rugby-league-team-granted-entry-into-the-2026-championship-under-new-consortium-led-by-mason-caton-brown
13. "Featherstone Rovers removed from Championship by RFL – Total Rugby League". Total RL. 9 January 2026. Retrieved 9 January 2026.
14. Olawumi, Ben (9 January 2026). "Featherstone Rovers axed from Championship amid financial woes as second tier re-jigged". Love Rugby League. Retrieved 9 January 2026.
15. "RFL add new Championship fixtures after Featherstone Rovers exit". Total RL. 20 January 2026. Retrieved 20 January 2026.
16. "Play-Off System Confirmed for Betfred Championship". RFL. 16 January 2026. Retrieved 17 January 2026.