The British rugby league system is based on a five-tier structure administered by the Rugby Football League.

Professional clubs

The top three divisions in Britain consist of the following professional or semi-professional clubs:

Professional rugby league clubs

Colours	Club	Established (re-formed)	City	Stadium
	Barrow Raiders	1875	Barrow, Cumbria	Craven Park (7,600)
	Batley Bulldogs	1880	Batley, West Yorkshire	Mount Pleasant (7,500)
	Bradford Bulls	1908 (2017)	Bradford, West Yorkshire	Odsal Stadium (24,500)
	Castleford Tigers	1926	Castleford, West Yorkshire	Wheldon Road (11,743)
	Catalans Dragons	2000	Perpignan, France	Stade Gilbert Brutus (13,000)
	Cornwall	2021	Penryn, Cornwall	Memorial Ground (2,000)
	Dewsbury Rams	1898	Dewsbury, West Yorkshire	Crown Flatt (5,100)
	Doncaster	1951	Doncaster, South Yorkshire	Keepmoat Stadium (15,231)
	Featherstone Rovers	1902	Featherstone, West Yorkshire	Post Office Road (6,750)
	Halifax	1873	Halifax, West Yorkshire	The Shay (14,000)
	Huddersfield Giants	1864	Huddersfield, West Yorkshire	John Smith's Stadium (24,500)
	Hull FC	1865	Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire	KC Stadium (25,404)
	Hull Kingston Rovers	1882	Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire	Craven Park (12,000)
	Hunslet	1883 (1973)	Leeds, West Yorkshire	South Leeds Stadium (4,000)
	Keighley Cougars	1876	Keighley, West Yorkshire	Cougar Park (7,800)
	Leeds Rhinos, and Leeds Rhinos Women	1864, and 2017	Leeds, West Yorkshire	Headingley (20,500)
	Leigh Leopards	1878	Leigh, Greater Manchester	Leigh Sports Village (11,000)
	London Broncos	1980	Wimbledon, Greater London	Plough Lane (9,215)
	Midlands Hurricanes	1998	Birmingham, West Midlands	Alexander Stadium (18,000)
	North Wales Crusaders	2006 (2011)	Colwyn Bay, Wales	Eirias Stadium (6,080)
	Oldham	1876	Oldham, Greater Manchester	Boundary Park (13,513)
	Rochdale Hornets	1866	Rochdale, Greater Manchester	Spotland (10,000)
	St. Helens	1873	St. Helens, Merseyside	Totally Wicked Stadium (18,000)
	Salford Red Devils	1873	Salford, Greater Manchester	AJ Bell Stadium (12,000)
	Sheffield Eagles	1999	Sheffield, South Yorkshire	Olympic Legacy Stadium (3,900)
	Swinton Lions	1866	Swinton, Greater Manchester	Park Lane (3,000)
	Toulouse Olympique	1937	Toulouse, France	Stade Ernest-Wallon (19,500)
	Wakefield Trinity	1873	Wakefield, West Yorkshire	Belle Vue (12,000)
	Warrington Wolves	1876	Warrington, Cheshire	Halliwell Jones Stadium (15,300)
	Whitehaven	1948 (2010)	Whitehaven, Cumbria	Recreation Ground (7,500)
	Widnes Vikings	1875	Widnes, Cheshire	Naughton Park (13,000)
	Wigan Warriors	1872	Wigan, Greater Manchester	DW Stadium (20,000)
	Workington Town	1945	Workington, Cumbria	Derwent Park (10,000)
	York Knights, and York Valkyrie	1868 (2002), and 2016	York, North Yorkshire	York Community Stadium (8,500)

• *capacity for Rugby League games may differ from official stadium capacity.

History

The first season of rugby league (1895–96) saw all the clubs play in a single league competition. The addition of new teams and the problems of travelling led to the league being split in two for the following season; into the Yorkshire League and the Lancashire League. In the 1897–98 season Lancashire added professional second and third competitions, but the third competition only lasted one season. Yorkshire added a professional second competition (split west and east to reduce travelling) for the 1898–99 season. The bottom teams from the senior competition played a promotion/relegation test match against the winner of their county's second competition. This arrangement lasted until the 1901–02, when the top clubs from each league formed a single new competition. This saw the Lancashire and Yorkshire Senior Leagues elect numerous clubs from the second competitions (5 from Lancashire and 7 from Yorkshire) with the second competitions subsequently scrapped and teams excluded from the senior competitions joining either the Lancashire Combination (reserve grade) and a new Yorkshire Senior League or reverting to amateur status, either within the Northern Union or in the case of many Yorkshire clubs back to rugby union. However, many clubs folded and some even switched to association football. The following season most of the remaining clubs in the Yorkshire and Lancashire Leagues were re-organised to form a Second Division, although four teams from the Yorkshire League and two from the Lancashire league were not elected to the new second division (but South Shields who had played in no league in 1901–02 were).

In 1905–06, the two divisions were re-combined into a single competition. Initially clubs arranged all their own fixtures with the condition that they had to play teams they do play both home and away. After this a new structure was introduced where clubs played all the teams in their own county on a home-and-away basis, results counting towards the re-formed Yorkshire and Lancashire Leagues, although due to imbalance in number of teams it was common for a Yorkshire club to have to play in the Lancashire League. They also had home-and-away fixtures scheduled against a small number of teams in the other competition (usually three); all results were collated into a single table for the Championship. In order to even up the competition a top-four play-off series was used to determine the Championship.

Apart from the interventions of the world wars, this system was retained until 1962–63, when the league briefly returned to a two divisional system. This lasted only two seasons, and in 1964–65 they went back to one large division subdivided into county leagues, but the play-off were expanded to the top 16 teams.

In 1973–74 they again went back to two divisions. The play-off and the Yorkshire and Lancashire League were abandoned, though a new play-off type competition, the Club Championship was introduced to replace the championship play-offs.

The following season saw the title change to Premiership and the format was altered so that only the top eight teams in the First Division would compete. A similar competition was later instituted for clubs in the lower league(s). In the 1991–92 and 1992–93 seasons, a Third Division was played. However, the league reverted to two divisions for the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons, controversially demoting three clubs to the National Conference League in the process.

In 1996 the Premiership was replaced by the Super League. The clubs outside of Super League played in the First Division which now came under Super League, and the clubs that previously played in Division Three now played in a retitled the Second Division.

Between 1999 and 2002, rugby league below Super League was re-organised into one large competition, the Northern Ford Premiership. In 2003, the NFP was divided into National Leagues 1 and 2 with a National League 3 made up from sides drawn from the Rugby League Conference and British Amateur Rugby League Association winter leagues. It was intended that at some future point promotion and relegation would be allowed between National League 3 and National League 2, however, in 2006 National League 3 was rebranded Rugby League Conference National Division and plans for promotion and relegation were scrapped.

In 2009, the National Leagues were renamed the Championship and Championship 1. Between 2009 and 2014 automatic promotion and relegation between Super League and the Championship was replaced by a franchise system. Teams in the Championship would have to apply for a licence to play in Super League. Licences were reviewed every 5 years.

In 2013, it was announced that there was to be a review into the structure of the Rugby League system in Europe. Clubs, fans and sponsors were asked about their needs from the system. Three options were reviewed; one system using two leagues of 10, with the Super League and Championship having one promotion and relegation place between the two. The format of promotion was to be decided later. The second option was the same system, with Promotion and Relegation between the two, but with 12 teams in each division. The third option was most radical, and featured two leagues of 12, which would, after 11 games, split to three groups of 8. This would be mixed with a new funding structure. On 17 January 2014, it was announced the third option had been selected, but had been changed to split after 23 games, which would be a complete round-robin and an added fixture, the Magic Weekend. From 2015, this was decided to be the new structure.^[3]

In preparation for the new structure, it was decided across the two leagues, Championship and Super League, there would be a season of realignment, in which five clubs would be relegated from the Championship, and one promoted to the Championship, and two teams would be relegated from the Super League to the Championship. This meant that the Super League, from 2015, would be made up of the 12 remaining teams from the Super League XIX season, and a Championship made up of the two relegated teams from the Super League, one team promoted from the 2014 Championship 1 and the nine remaining Championship teams. League 1, which would be modelled on the Championship, would be made out of the five relegated Championship teams, 8 current League 1 teams, and Coventry Bears.

Men's structure

Women's structure

Structure from 2024.^[4]

See also

• Rugby league in the British Isles
• Women's rugby league in Great Britain
• Australian rugby league system
• French rugby league system
• List of rugby league clubs in Britain

Notes

References