Championship and League 1 clubs consider Super 8s call as restructure looms

Championship and League 1 clubs are considering a number of restructuring proposals for 2026 – with a decision to be made on regionalising the competitions or merging them into one league now on the table.

All clubs from outside Super League met in Oldham on Wednesday to discuss what the future of the two competitions below the top flight look like from next season.

Love Rugby League has been told that clubs were presented with three options which were then discussed. One has now been seemingly ruled out; a possible move to introduce a three-tier conferencing system.

But two options remain, and will now be considered by the Rugby Football League’s board. They are the aforementioned and heavily reported regionalised conferences, which would effectively split the 21 professional clubs that will be in Championship and League 1 next year by geography.

They would be in Eastern and Western Conferences, with extra fixtures to potentially be created in a post-season format similar to American sports. Clubs believe the merits of that include more local derbies, leading to potentially bigger attendances and renewed interest.

But the other option includes a complete merger of the two divisions into one enormous league. Both of those options, Love Rugby League has been told, remain on the table for now and will be considered by the RFL.

However, one decision that looks increasingly is a move to remove this year’s planned Super 8s, which was high on the agenda at Wednesday’s meeting.

With Championship and League 1 structure changing at the end of this year – however that may look – there now appears to be no need for a planned eight-team Qualifiers-style system to determine the four teams who make the Championship in 2026.

That means that there will merely be a League 1 champion following the end of the season with none of the third-tier teams now having to go through a system to fight for a place in the Championship.

It does mean that for this year at least, promotion and relegation across the whole of the professional game in its conventional format is gone – with the two divisions set to be dramatically overhauled in 2026.

The regional conferencing idea was presented as a viable option as recently as 2023 – but rejected out of hand by a majority of clubs outside Super League. However, it is understood to have stronger support this time.