MONDAY’S announcement the Betfred Super League will be going back to 14 teams from the 2026 was not in itself surprising.
If anything, it was expected it would be coming soon. Perhaps not so soon as the evening following a meeting of the current 12 clubs on Monday, but coming soon nonetheless.
What it did as well was throw new light on comments by recently-elected Rugby League Commercial chair and the man overseeing the sport’s ongoing club-led strategic review, Nigel Wood, on the latest episode of Sky Sports‘ rugby league podcast which was released that morning.
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“I think we should be following an expansion strategy,” Wood told The Bench.
“But that doesn’t mean to say it should be done recklessly or putting at jeopardy the competition.
“You wouldn’t want to jeopardise the intensity of the competition to go to 14 clubs hastily if that wasn’t the right thing.”
Given he confirmed options of contracting to a 10-team Super League or sticking at 12 were explored too, it was fairly obvious which way Team Nigel would be encouraging the clubs to lean.
The 12 existing @Betfred #SuperLeague clubs have today voted to extend the competition to 14 teams for the 2026 season, subject to conditions.
Click to read full statement 👇
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) July 28, 2025
And lean that way the vast majority did. All Out Rugby League reported nine of the current 12 Super League members voted in favour of expanding to 14 for 2026, with the two Hull clubs voting against and Wigan Warriors abstaining.
At least two clubs will be promoted to Super League for 2026 as well, with 12 being decided by IMG gradings and the remaining two by an independent panel.
Just what criteria the independent panel will be judging clubs on, or even how the application process will work, is yet to be confirmed.
You could also question just how “independent” this panel will be given it is being chaired by recently-elected RFL board and strategic review sub-committee member Lord Jonathan Caine.
York Knights, London Broncos and Bradford Bulls have been heavily rumoured as candidates to join an expanded Super League next year, and all three have the potential to improve their IMG grading enough to get in that way.
York’s recent signing of former Australia and State of Origin prop Paul Vaughan from Warrington Wolves on a rumoured £200,000 deal is not the action of a club which does not have the expectation of being in Super League one way or the other next year either.
The Minister City has long been seen as a potential example of “heartland expansion” too, while a London presence is seen as strategically important for rugby league as a whole.
As much as Broncos director of rugby and performance Mike Eccles might not like the conversations taking place while his side are staring into the abyss of the Super Eights this season, the fact is they are.
This year’s arrival at the Cherry Red Records Stadium of Leeds Rhinos CEO and Team Nigel backer Gary Hetherington has only amplified those.
And Bradford? Well, it doesn’t take a MacArthur Genius Grant winner to figure out the presence of their, up until March this year, former chairman by the name of Nigel Jonathan Wood OBE in positions of power at the RFL and RL Commercial could be perceived as having an influence on their possible return to the big time.
There are, however, two elephants in the room here. One is Salford Red Devils, although it would not be a surprise if the financially-stricken club’s IMG grading had slipped enough to put them outside of the top 12.
The other is Toulouse Olympique, the 13th-rated club in the most recent gradings and which will likely apply to the panel judging promotion candidates in the hope of rejoining Catalans Dragons as a second French presence in Super League.
Then there is the issue of how two extra teams in Super League will be funded.
However, Wood, citing a £36million ecosystem for the whole of rugby league in the UK, insisted it would not be done by cutting central distribution the 12 clubs receive.
“That’s part of the work which is being done,” Wood said. “The important thing is, because it’s an issue the clubs will vote on themselves, they’re hardly likely to vote on things which will cost them money.
“So we have to find different efficiencies and mechanisms, if we wanted to expand, to fund that.
“There are opportunities to find pockets of funding for that.”
That suggested two options. One is cuts will be made elsewhere in the sport, with fears the women’s and community games will bear the brunt of those, to provide Super League-level central funding or the 13th and 14th teams will have to fund themselves for the year in the hope of earning an improved broadcast deal to cover them from 2027 onwards.
What the expansion means for the current broadcast agreement with Sky Sports and the BBC, which concludes at the end of the 2026 season, is unclear too.
While a 14-team Super League means the end of loop fixtures and likely a 27-round season comprising 26 rounds of home and away fixtures plus Magic Weekend, it also means seven games per round rather than six.
Those extra games are not included in the 2024-26 agreement with Sky, which saw the pay-TV giant broadcast and produce live coverage for every match for the first time in the competition’s history.
Rugbyleaguehub.com understands production costs for every live broadcast are around £30,000, meaning Sky would have to stump up another £780,000 to produce 26 extra matches per season, excluding Magic Weekend.
Rugbyleaguehub.com also understands Sky will be offered those extras matches, although they could be sold to another broadcaster or even streamed exclusively on Super League+.
In any case, full video referee provision would be needed for them to ensure the integrity of the competition, which adds to the production costs.
That, too, underlines the extra burden which will be placed on an already stretched match officials department.
The RFL will need seven extra officials per round (referee, video referee, two touch judges, reserve referee, match commissioner, timekeeper) to step up, which in turn takes resources from further down the pyramid.
Then there is the question of what will Magic Weekend look like? Under Super League’s previous 14-team era, it saw three games played on one day and four on another.
Assuming Magic Weekend even has a future in this expanded Super League, that is.
What will the play-offs look like too? Will we see them expand to eight from six, which was criticised previously for seeing teams with losing records from the regular season sneak in?
That is without mentioning the concerns over whether there is enough strength in the playing pool, even with the expansion of overseas quota spots (Spoiler: There isn’t), to ensure the quality of the overall product – another major criticism of the last failed expansion to 14.
One thing for certain is Super League will be bigger in 2026. As rugby league has apparently failed to learn from the past, though, that does not always mean better – especially not if major questions are not properly addressed.