2026 RFL Championship

2026 Betfred Championship
Duration	January – October 2026
Teams	21
← 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 21 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 RFL announcing the combination of the second tier Championship and the third tier League One, into one competition, the Championship has 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

On 16th October 2025 it was announced that the Bradford Bulls were to be promoted to the Super League at the end of 2025 season. Bradford were replacing the Salford Red Devils who were relegated from Super League to the Championship under the IMG grading system. ^[3]

On 17th October 2025 it was announced that the two clubs being promoted from the Championship to the Super League, due to Super League's expansion from 12 to 14 teams ^[4] were to be; Toulouse Olympique and the York Knights. ^[5]

Clubs

Stadiums and locations

Barrow

Doncaster

Greater Manchester

Goole

London

Sheffield

Midlands

Newcastle

North Wales

West Yorkshire

Whitehaven

Widnes

Workington

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Locations of the 2026 RFL Championship teams

Batley

Dewsbury

Featherstone

Halifax

Hunslet

Keighley

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Locations of the 2026 RFL Championship teams in West Yorkshire

Oldham

Rochdale

Salford

Swinton

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Locations of the 2026 RFL Championship teams in Greater Manchester

Team	2025 Position	Head coach	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Grading
Barrow Raiders	9th	Paul Crarey	Jarrad Stack	Northern Competitions Stadium	4,000	B
Batley Bulldogs	12th	James Ford	vacant	Fox's Biscuits Stadium	7,500	B
Dewsbury Rams	4th League One	Paul March	George Senior	FLAIR Stadium	5,100	C
Doncaster	8th	Richard Horne	Reece Lyne	Eco-Power Stadium	15,231	B
Featherstone Rovers	6th	Paul Cooke	Danny Addy	Millenium Stadium	8,000	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	Jimmy Watson	South Leeds Stadium	3,450	C
Keighley Cougars	9th League One	Alan Kilshaw	vacant	Cougar Park	7,800
London Broncos	10th	Jason Demetriou	vacant	Cherry Red Records Stadium	9,215	B
Midlands Hurricanes	5th League One	Mark Dunning	Callum McLelland	Alexander Stadium	18,000	C
Newcastle Thunder	10th League One	Graham Steadman	vacant	Crow Trees Ground	2,000
North Wales Crusaders	1st League One	Dean Muir	Chris Barratt	Eirias Stadium	5,500	C
Oldham	4th	vacant	vacant	Boundary Park	13,186	B
Rochdale Hornets	6th League One	Gary Thornton	vacant	Crown Oil Arena	10,249	C
Salford Red Devils	12th Super League	vacant	vacant	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	Mitch Cox	Morson Stadium	3,387	C
Whitehaven	8th League One	Anthony Murray	Jordan Burns	Ortus REC	7,500	C
Widnes Vikings	7th	Allan Coleman	Jack Owens	DCBL Stadium	13,350	B
Workington Town	2nd League One	Jonty Gorley	Stevie Scholey	Derwent Park	10,000	C

Regular season

Table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Barrow Raiders	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Batley Bulldogs	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Dewsbury Rams	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Doncaster	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Featherstone Rovers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Goole Vikings	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	Halifax Panthers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	Hunslet	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	Keighley Cougars	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	London Broncos	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	Midlands Hurricanes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12	Newcastle Thunder	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
13	North Wales Crusaders	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	Oldham	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	Rochdale Hornets	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	Salford Red Devils	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
17	Sheffield Eagles	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
18	Swinton Lions	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
19	Widnes Vikings	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
20	Whitehaven	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
21	Workington Town	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 17-18 January 2026. Source: RFL

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. "Salford Red Devils relegated from Super League after grading announcement". 16 October 2025.
4. "Super League to expand to 14 teams from 2026". 28 July 2025.
5. "Toulouse Olympique and York Knights give Super League golden ticket as London Broncos miss out". 17 October 2025.