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Super League could expand to 14 teams as early as next year if a strategic review led by the Rugby Football League’s interim chair, Nigel Wood, can convince the existing 12 teams that expansion is financially viable for 2026.
Wood, the governing body’s former chief executive who was brought back earlier this year after clubs decided he should lead a review that would scrutinise all aspects of the professional game in the United Kingdom.
That included whether there is room for French clubs Catalans Dragons and Toulouse, as well as the sport’s long-term partnership with IMG. Their recommendations in 2022 suggested that Super League should only expand when there were enough clubs reaching the highest bracket in their gradings criteria.
But Wood’s review, which will be delivered to clubs next month at a meeting in Wakefield, will recommend a move to 14 as early as next year. Crucially, the Guardian has been told that more and more support has been garnered for that idea in recent weeks, with one high-ranking figure suggesting it was “as good as a done deal”.
However, there remains scepticism from some elite clubs about the financial impact expanding Super League would have for the existing 12 teams, which could be the big stumbling block. The central distribution each club receives has shrunk drastically with the value of the competition’s TV deal shrinking from £40mper year a decade ago to around £21m in 2025.
Some clubs who are open to 14 teams are only keen to commit to the idea once they have seen commitments on whether or not their central distribution would reduce further owing to more teams being in the competition.
However, the Guardian has been told that one idea that has been floated among the corridors of ambitious Championship clubs would be for two clubs to join the elite and receive minimal – or even no – central distribution in 2026, with the hope that the sport can then secure an increased TV deal for 2027 when the current Sky contract ends.
That would lead to an almighty scramble to become one of the two teams added to Super League with four clubs – Toulouse, Bradford, York and London – all believing they could step up for next year. It is understood that at least two of those teams would be willing to do so without distribution for one year, too.
But expansion to 14 would not be received well by the National Rugby League (NRL), who remain interested in taking control of the competition in an attempt to revive its fortunes. Their preference would be to actually reduce Super League to 10 teams, not increase it.
One official in Australia believes that if clubs go with Wood’s proposals given his unpopularity in the corridors of the NRL, it would effectively spell the end of any meaningful interest in a deal between the two competitions.
The RFL have been approached for comment.
