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

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

. There is no system of automatic promotion and relegation between all five tiers although teams have moved between them in the past. Since the 2015 season, the act of promotion and relegation has been re-introduced in the form of a new format including end-of-season play-offs across a variety of different leagues, however automatic promotion and relegation between the varying leagues (such as the professional leagues and the NCL) still does not exist.

Professional Clubs

The top three divisions in Britain contain professional (or semi-professional) clubs consisting of the following: *''*capacity for Rugby League games may differ from official stadium capacity.''

Non-British clubs

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons ( French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from ...

In 2005 the new franchise was awarded to

to play in the 2006 Super League. To help make sure the franchise did not fail as the PSG franchise did, the RFL allowed the Dragons to sign players from other French teams for no transfer fee. They were also promised to be exempted from relegation for 3 years. In their first season they finished bottom of the league but Castleford Tigers were the team relegated. Over the next few years they continually improved and in 2007 they became the first French team to reach a Challenge Cup Final. In 2018 they were the first non-British team to win the Challenge Cup. *

Toulouse Olympique Toulouse Olympique or TO XIII is a professional rugby league club in Toulouse, south-west France. Founded in 1937, two years after the French Rugby League Federation, the club is a six-time winner of the French Rugby League Championship. The ...

In 2009 Toulouse applied for a

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

licence but failed; however, the RFL were impressed with their application and invited them to play in the Championship. In their first season they finished the season 10th but were not relegated due to it being their first season in the British structure. In their second season they improved finishing 8th but missing out on the playoffs. In 2011 they were relegated but chose to return to the French

Elite One Championship Elite 1 is the top level rugby league competition in France, sanctioned by the French Rugby League Federation. The season runs from September to April, which is in contrast to the majority of other major domestic rugby league competitions wor ...

after they failed to get into Super League. In 2015 it was announced the RFL had invited them to play in League 1 from 2016 in the hope they can get promoted to Super League. Toulouse now play in the Championship, having earned promotion in their inaugural League 1 season of 2016.

History

Evolution of the professional structure

The first season of

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

(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 Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

. However, many clubs folded and some even switched to

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

. The following season most of the remaining clubs in the Yorkshire and Lancashire Leagues were re-organised to form a

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, 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 war A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

s, 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 The National Conference League (known as the Kingstone Press National Conference League for sponsorship reasons) is the top English amateur rugby league competition in the Rugby Football League pyramid, and as such is the leading amateur rugby l ...

in the process.

Super League, National Leagues and the Championships

In 1996 the Premiership was replaced by the

. 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 The Rugby Football League Championship Second Division was founded in 1902 and was the second tier of professional rugby league in the UK until 2003. During the 1990s a third division was established and there is automatic promotion between ...

. 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 The Rugby League Conference (RLC) (also known as the Co-operative Rugby League Conference as a result of sponsorship from The Co-operative Group), was a series of regionally based divisions of amateur rugby league teams spread throughout England, ...

and

British Amateur Rugby League Association The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) is an association for social and recreational rugby league. It works jointly with the Rugby Football League through the RFL Community Board. History BARLA was created in 1973 in Huddersfiel ...

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 Co-operative 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.

2015 new structure

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

and

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

having one

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

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 The Magic Weekend (known as the Dacia Magic Weekend for sponsorship reasons) is an annual event organised by the Rugby Football League in which an entire round of Super League matches is played over a weekend at a single stadium to promote the ...

. From 2015, this was decided to be the new structure. In preparation for the new structure, it was decided across the two leagues,

and

, 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 The 2014 Super League season (known as the First Utility Super League XIX due to sponsorship by First Utility) was the 19th season of rugby league football since the Super League format was introduced in 1996. Fourteen teams competed for the Le ...

season, and a Championship made up of the two relegated teams from the Super League, one team promoted from the

2014 Championship 1 The 2014 Championship 1, known as the Kingstone Press Championship 1 for sponsorship reasons, was a semi-professional rugby league football competition played in England, the third tier of the sport in the country. One team will be promoted fro ...

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 The Midlands Hurricanes are a semi-professional rugby league club jointly based in Birmingham and Coventry, West Midlands, England. They were founded as the Coventry Bears in 1998 and entered the third tier of the British rugby league system, ...

Professional structure

Tier 1: Super League

The league pyramid of

in the United Kingdom is topped and very much dominated by Super League, with the 11 top teams from England and 1 in France. The top four teams enter the play-offs and the winner is determined by a Grand Final. Automatic promotion and relegation from Super ended in 2007. Fourteen teams were awarded 2009–11 Super League licences which gave them the right to play in Super League for the next three years. The next round of franchising took place in 2011 for the 2012–14 time frame. Only teams in Super League, or those who appeared in at least one Championship grand final or won the

Championship Cup The Championship Cup, (known as the Northern Rail Cup for sponsorship reasons), and previously known as the National League Cup, was a rugby league football competition for clubs in the United Kingdom's Rugby League Championships. Although the F ...

, were eligible to apply.

Crusaders Rugby League Crusaders Rugby League ( cy, Croesgadwyr Rygbi'r Gynghrair) was a professional rugby league club based in Bridgend and later in Wrexham, Wales. They played for six seasons in the Rugby Football League competitions, including three years in the ...

, which had recently exited

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

, withdrew their application for a licence, resulting in the end of Welsh presence in Super League for the immediate future. Their place in Super League was taken up by

Widnes Vikings The Widnes Vikings are an English rugby league club in Widnes, Cheshire, which competes in the Betfred Championship. The club plays home matches at the Halton Stadium. Founded as Widnes Football Club, they are one of the original twenty-two rug ...

. Crusaders folded after the 2011 season and a phoenix club emerged in League 1 called

North Wales Crusaders The North Wales Crusaders ( cy, Croesgadwyr Gogledd Cymru Rygbi'r Gynghrair) is a professional rugby league club based in Colwyn Bay, Wales. They are the successors to the former Super League club Crusaders Rugby League. Crusaders compete in ...

. Promotion and relegation was reintroduced in 2015. The bottom four teams in Super League play the top four teams in the Championship in their own league of 8. The top 3 teams earn a place in the next seasons Super League while teams finishing 4th and 5th play each other in the Million Pound Game for the final Super League place. This system was stopped in 2018 now leaving in place a one up - one down promotion and relegation style from 2019.

Tier 2: Championship

Below the Super League, is the Championship. A play-off structure was used to determine the winners of the Championship between 2008–14 and there was no promotion to Super League. In 2015 the top 4 Championship teams create a league of 8 with the bottom 4 Super League teams, the top 3 earn Super League places and 4th and 5th play each other for the final place. The bottom 8 Championship teams carry the points they earned in the regular season forward and play each other one more time. The top four then enter a playoff for the Championship Shield and the bottom two teams are relegated to League 1. Currently the top team gets the league leaders shield at the end of the season, with a simple play off where 2nd play 5th and 3rd play 4th in the semi finals and the winners of these meet in the elimination final. The winner of the elimination final plays the league leaders to decide who is promoted to the

in what is billed the

Million Pound Game Million Pound Game (stylized as £1M Game) was an annual playoff final rugby league game that decides which Championship team will be promoted to Super League the following season. Between 2015 and 2018, the game was played as part of The Qualif ...

. The reserve teams of the Super League clubs play in the reserve team championship (except Catalans Dragons, whose reserves play in the French Elite League) and the reserve teams of some Championship clubs play in the reserve team first division. The

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

of Toulouse Olympique also plays in the French Elite League.

Tier 3: League 1

Two teams are promoted to the Championship. The top team at the end of the season wins the league championship and earns automatic promotion. The second promotion place is determined by a knockout play-off among the next four teams in the league. The semi-final pairings are 2–5 and 3–4, and the higher seed hosts all matches. The league was previously called Championship 1 and had 8 teams but was expanded to 14 in 2015 with the restructure of the professional leagues in 2015, and further expanded to 15 with the addition of Toulouse Olympique in 2016 and to its current number of 16 teams with the entry of the Toronto Wolfpack in 2017. New professional teams all enter at this division; below are the

and Conference League South which run parallel to one another. The French

is also below League 1. There is no promotion or relegation between these divisions but teams can be promoted via an application to the

(RFL). As of 2019, only 14 clubs exist in League 1 due to

Hemel Stags Hemel Stags are an amateur rugby league club based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. They were semi-professional and played in Betfred League 1 from 2013 until 2018. They withdrew from the professional system when their licence was purchased ...

Oxford Rugby League Oxford Rugby League was a semi-professional rugby league club based in Oxford, England. The club was formed in 2012 and joined League 1 in 2013, playing for five seasons before agreeing to merge with Gloucestershire All Golds following the 2 ...

and

Gloucestershire All Golds Gloucestershire All Golds is a rugby league team based at the University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. University of Gloucestershire All Golds consists of six different teams, with the first team entering Kingstone Press ...

all pulling out of the competition in the past two years.

Amateur structure

Tier 4: NCL

** Premier Division **

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

** Division Two **

Division Three The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the fo ...

Southern Conference League The Southern Conference League is a British rugby league division in the Rugby Football League's tier 4. It is the highest level of amateur rugby league in the South of England and South Wales. It was one of the leagues that replaced Rugby Leag ...

The highest amateur league is the

which consists of four divisions (Premier Division, Division One, Division two and Division Three) of up to 14 teams each. There is promotion and relegation between each division – three up and three down. The bottom two teams from Division Three face re-election, but usually they are both re-elected as enough teams resign from the league to allow any new teams to enter. Teams from regional leagues can apply for election to the Conference League if they meet minimum criteria. There is never automatic promotion or relegation from regional leagues into the National Conference League structure or from National Conference League to the Professional Leagues

Tier 5: regional leagues

The now defunct

was abolished and replaced with a series of regional leagues from 2012 with the inclusion of many clubs that formerly played in the winter.

Summer

Yorkshire Men's League The Yorkshire Men's League is a rugby league competition for clubs in Yorkshire. It is a successor league for the Rugby League Conference also comprising clubs from the CMS Yorkshire league, Pennine League and Hull & District League. History ...

North West Men's League The North West Men's League is a rugby league competition for clubs in the North West of England. It is a successor league for the Rugby League Conference also comprising clubs from the North West Counties League following most of the latter swit ...

Cumberland League The league is run by the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA). Teams from the Cumberland league can apply for election to the National Conference League if they meet minimum criteria. History The Cumberland League has been in existenc ...

Midlands Rugby League The Midlands Rugby League Premier Division is the highest level of amateur rugby league in the English Midlands. It was previously the Midlands Premier Division of the Rugby League Conference. Many of the clubs run juniors in the Midlands Junio ...

North East Rugby League The North East Rugby League Premier Divisions is the top league in a 2 division structure in rugby league's tier 4. It is competed for by teams in the North East of England, Cumbria and North Yorkshire though in the past occasionally teams from W ...

South West Rugby League The South West Rugby League (SWRL) also known as the ''South West Men's League'', is a rugby league competition for teams in the South West of England. It was formerly part of the Rugby League Conference. The SWRL is a semi-autonomous league w ...

West of England Rugby League The South West Rugby League (SWRL) also known as the ''South West Men's League'', is a rugby league competition for teams in the South West of England. It was formerly part of the Rugby League Conference. The SWRL is a semi-autonomous league w ...

East Men's League The East Rugby League (East RL) is a tier 5 amateur rugby league competition structure with sides from the East of England. It was previously the ''East Division'' of the Rugby League Conference, which was set up in 1997. Structure The East ...

* South Premier * London & South East Men's League *

Barrow & District League The Barrow & District League is a rugby league division in and around Barrow-in-Furness. The league is run by the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA). Officially, teams from the Barrow & District League can apply for election to the ...

* Scottish Conference League *

North Wales Conference The North Wales Conference is a summer rugby league competition for teams in North Wales and Mid Wales. History The Rugby League Conference was founded in 1997 as the ''Southern Conference'', a 10-team pilot league for teams in the South of ...

South Wales Premiership The South Wales Premiership is the league for amateur clubs in southern Wales. Previously it was part of the Rugby League Conference but became standalone in 2012. History The Rugby League Conference was founded in 1997 as the ''Southern Conf ...

administer different amateur competitions which run throughout the winter in the heartlands.

Winter

North West Counties League The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern ...

CMS Yorkshire League The CMS Yorkshire League was a series of rugby league divisions in the traditional county of Yorkshire. The league was run by the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA). Teams from the Yorkshire league could apply for election to the Na ...

Pennine League The Pennine Amateur Rugby League, or Pennine League is a rugby league competition for amateur open-age clubs that runs from September to April. The clubs are drawn from West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and the east of Lancashire. ...

Hull & District League The Hull & District League is a BARLA winter league for clubs from Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. It consists of clubs playing in two divisions. It is one of only four amateur leagues older than the British Amateur Rugby League A ...

Pyramid

:''Professional structure since 2009; Amateur structure since 2012; Number of clubs have varied by year.''

Historical pyramids

:''From 2003 to 2009 (professional) and 2012 (amateur)'' :''From 1999 (professional) and 1997 (amateur) to 2003'' :''Initiation to 1999 (professional) and 1997 (amateur)''