RFL Championship

Championship

Current season, competition or edition: 2024 RFL Championship
Sport	Rugby league
Founded	2003;21 years ago (2003)
No. of teams	14
Country	England   France
Most recent champion(s)	London Broncos (1st title)
Most titles	Leigh Leopards (5 titles)
TV partner(s)	Premier Sports [1]
Level on pyramid	2
Relegation to	League One
Domestic cup(s)	Challenge Cup 1895 Cup
Official website	Championship

The Rugby Football League Championship, (known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second highest division of rugby league in Britain after the Super League. ^[2]

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 and relegation to League One. The current champions are London Broncos, winners of the 2023 season after beating Toulouse Olympique in the Championship Grand Final to win promotion to Super League 2024.

History

1902–1973: Establishment and regular competition

Second division rugby league competitions 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 (NFP) 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 (who had folded mid-season in 2002) 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

Main article: Rugby League 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. ^[3]

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: ^[4]

• The bottom 4 Super League clubs and the top 4 Championship clubs compete in The Qualifiers . They play each other once (either home or away) to determine which four of the clubs will compete in Super League the following year.
• The remaining (bottom 8) 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

On 14 September 2018, an EGM was called to discuss the future of the sport and a change in structure, as the clubs were in favour of scrapping the Super 8s in favour of a more conventional structure. Two proposals were put forward: one by Super League and one by the Championship and League 1;

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 (29 games). 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.

Clubs

Championship clubs
Colours	Club	Established	Location	Stadium	Capacity*
	Barrow Raiders	1875	Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria	Craven Park	6,000
	Batley Bulldogs	1880	Batley, West Yorkshire	Mount Pleasant	7,500
	Bradford Bulls	1907	Bradford, West Yorkshire	Odsal Stadium	22,739
	Dewsbury Rams	1898	Dewsbury, West Yorkshire	Crown Flatt	5,800
	Doncaster	1951	Doncaster, South Yorkshire	Eco Power Stadium	15,231
	Featherstone Rovers	1902	Featherstone, West Yorkshire	Post Office Road	8,000
	Halifax Panthers	1873	Halifax, West Yorkshire	The Shay	14,000
	Sheffield Eagles	1984	Sheffield, South Yorkshire	Olympic Legacy Stadium	3,000
	Swinton Lions	1866	Sale, Greater Manchester	Heywood Road	3,387
	Toulouse Olympique	1937	Toulouse, Haute-Garonne	Stade Ernest-Wallon	19,500
	Wakefield Trinity	1873	Wakefield, West Yorkshire	Belle Vue	9,333
	Whitehaven	1948	Whitehaven, Cumbria	Recreation Ground	7,500
	Widnes Vikings	1875	Widnes, Cheshire	Halton Stadium	13,500
	York Knights	2002	York, North Yorkshire	York Community Stadium	8,008

• Seat capacity for other sports, concerts and events may differ.

Structure

Regular season

There are 14 clubs in the Championship. During the course of the season (usually from February to September) each club plays the other twice, once at their home stadium and once at their opponents. Clubs also play an additional fixture at the Summer Bash. Altogether clubs play 27 games.

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 less points conceded), points scored. The team finishing top after 27 games is awarded the League Leaders Shield while the two bottom teams are relegated to the League One

Play-offs

The play-offs have had various formats. Currently once every club has played 27 games, the top six teams qualify for the playoffs.

Round one sees 3rd v 6th and 4th v 5th. The winners then progress to the semi finals where the teams finishing 1st and 2nd enter. The two winners of the semi-finals meet in the Grand Final.

Results

For winners of the old Second Division, see Rugby Football League Championship Second Division.

Main article: Championship Grand Final

See also: RFL Championship Leaders' Shield

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.

Year	Champions	Score	Runners up	Relegated
2003	Salford	31–14	Leigh	Dewsbury
2004	Leigh	32–16	Whitehaven	Keighley
2005	Castleford	36–8	Whitehaven	Barrow Featherstone
2006	Hull Kingston Rovers	29–16	Widnes	Oldham York
2007	Castleford	42–10	Widnes	Rochdale Doncaster
2008	Salford	36–18	Crusaders	Dewsbury
2009	Barrow	26–18	Halifax	Doncaster Gateshead
2010	Halifax	23–22	Featherstone	Keighley Whitehaven
2011	Featherstone	40–4	Sheffield	Barrow Toulouse
2012	Sheffield	20–16	Featherstone	None
2013	Sheffield	19–12	Batley	York Hunslet
2014	Leigh	36–12	Featherstone	Barrow   Swinton   Rochdale,   North Wales Keighley
2015	Leigh	N/A	Bradford	Doncaster Hunslet
2016	Leigh		London	Workington Whitehaven
2017	Hull Kingston Rovers		London	Oldham Bradford
2018	Toronto		London	None
2019	Toronto	24–6	Featherstone	Barrow Rochdale
2020	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Leigh elevated to Super League
2021	Toulouse	34–12	Featherstone	Oldham Swinton
2022	Leigh	44–12	Batley	Dewsbury Workington
2023	London	18-14	Toulouse	Keighley Newcastle

Winners

	Club	Wins	runners up	Winning years
1	Leigh Leopards	5	1	2004, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2022
2	Sheffield Eagles	2		2012, 2013
3	Salford Red Devils		0	2003, 2008
	Castleford Tigers			2005, 2007
	Hull Kingston Rovers			2006, 2017
	Toronto Wolfpack			2018, 2019
4	Featherstone Rovers	1	5	2011
5	London Broncos		3	2023
6	Halifax Panthers		1	2010
	Toulouse Olympique			2021
7	Barrow Raiders		0	2009
8	Whitehaven	0	2	-
	Widnes Vikings
	Batley Bulldogs
9	Crusaders		1
	Bradford Bulls

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
2018–2023	Betfred	Betfred Championship

The official rugby ball supplier is Steeden. ^[5]

Media

Period	Broadcaster
2008–2011	Sky Sports Premier Sports
2012–2013	Premier Sports
2014	Sky Sports (Grand Final Only)
2015–2021	Sky Sports
2022	Premier Sports
2023	Viaplay Sports

TV

Sky Sports 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. ^[6]

Premier Sports became part of Viaplay late in 2022 and was marketed as Viaplay Sports for the 2023 season. ^[7]

Radio

Regional radio stations have coverage of the Championship clubs but mostly only cover Super League clubs in the same area and give updates of Championship scores and results.

Academies

Reserve League

Main article: RFL Reserve Championship

In 2014 and 2015 Super League clubs were unhappy with the Dual registration system and wanted to form an Under 23 reserve leagues between the Under 19s and 1st team. Wigan, Warrington and St Helens were the first teams to propose the return of the reserve league where players could move from the under 19s and play with professional players before playing in the 1st team. A reserve league was set up in 2016 with a mixture of Super League, Championship and League 1 teams.

Dual registration

Clubs in both the Super League and the Championships benefit from the new dual registration system which was introduced for the 2013 season. ^[8] The new system is intended to complement the existing player loan system.

Dual registration refers to an arrangement between clubs whereby a player continues to be registered to his current Super League club and is also registered to play for a club in the Championship. The system is aimed at young Super League players who are thought to be not quite ready to make the step up to ‘week in, week out’ Super League first team duties but for whom first team match experience is likely to be beneficial for their development.

• Only Super League players can be dual registered and the receiving club must be a club in the Championships, meaning that Super League to Super League club dual registrations are not available.
• A dual registered player will be eligible to play and train with both clubs in a format agreed between the clubs, subject to registration, salary cap and competition eligibility rules.
• The player is restricted to playing in one fixture per scheduled round of fixtures in any given week and would not be eligible to play for his Super League club on a Thursday and in a Championship fixture at the weekend, for example.
• A receiving club will be limited to a total of five dual registered players per matchday squad.

Match officials

Main article: RFL Match officials

All rugby league matches are governed by the laws set out by the RFL; these laws are enforced by match officials. Former Super League and International Referee Steve Ganson is the current Head of the Match Officials Department and Technical Director.

See also

• Sports portal

• British rugby league system
• Super League
• Rugby League Conference
• Northern Ford Premiership
• Championship Cup
• Rugby League Reserve Team Championship
• List of professional sports teams in the United Kingdom

References

1. "The list of Monday night rugby league Championship fixtures live on TV". 14 November 2021.
2. "Operational Rules". RFL. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
3. Super League to become a 12-team competition from 2015. Superleague.co.uk (11 July 2013). Retrieved on 20 August 2013.
4. "Super League: Competition restructures confirmed". BBC Sport. 24 September 2018.
5. "Steeden become Official Match Ball Partner".
6. Craven, Dave (6 October 2021). "Championship seals broadcast deal with Premier Sports for live Monday night games". www.yorkshirepost.co.uk. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
7. Bassam, Tom (21 July 2022). "Viaplay acquires Premier Sports in UK£30m deal to expand UK offering". SportsPro. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
8. Wilson, Andy (9 February 2013). "Debate continues over Super League and Championship dual registration". The Guardian.

External links

• Rugby Football League Championship