RFL announce changes to Championship and League 1 play-offs structure

The Rugby Football League has announced an amended structure for the Championship and League 1 play-offs in 2020.

In 2020, the winners of the Championship’s top five play-offs will again be promoted to the Super League – but the play-offs structure has been slightly amended.

Whereas previously, home advantage through the play-offs has been determined by position in the final league table, those rankings can now be changed by results in the play-offs.

This means that the winners of the major semi-final in round two of the play-0ffs will earn home advantage in the Grand Final two weeks later – while the losers of that semi-final will have home advantage in the preliminary final the following weekend.

The same system will apply to the League 1 play-offs involving the teams finishing second, third, fourth, fifth and six in the table – with the winners of the League 1 play-off final earning promotion to the Championship in 2021 with the league leaders.

In a major pre-season boost to the Championship, Sky Sports have also confirmed that they will again show live and exclusive coverage of the play-offs and final – the latter scheduled for the weekend of October 3-4.

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