{"id":373538,"date":"2026-01-16T15:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/373538\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T15:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:53:12","slug":"rfl-confirm-10-team-championship-play-off-structure-as-grand-final-date-locked-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/373538\/","title":{"rendered":"RFL confirm 10-team Championship play-off structure as Grand Final date locked in"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AM20154.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"Championship\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>On the day of the 2026 Championship season beginning, the RFL have confirmed that the competition\u2019s play-off system will look like.<\/p>\n<p>Salford RLFC will kickstart their new era and also open up the season when they<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/rugby-league-news-first-ever-salford-rlfc-team-news-confirmed-as-five-loanees-named-for-oldham-clash-111813\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> host Oldham tonight<\/a> and just under 12 hours before that game gets under way, we now know what the Championship play-off format will look like.<\/p>\n<p>It had previously been confirmed to be a 10-team system but with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/rugby-league-news-championship-club-confirm-plans-for-new-fixtures-after-featherstone-rovers-drop-out-of-league-111803\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Featherstone Rovers recently being denied RFL membership<\/a> and entry to the competition, there were still questions over if that system was locked in.<\/p>\n<p>The RFL have now confirmed that it will remain a 10-team play-off series with an extended and amended version of the McIntyre system to be used.<\/p>\n<p>By confirming how the play-offs will work, we also have confirmation that the Championship Grand Final will be played on the weekend of October 10th and 11th, one week after the Super League Grand Final.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on\u00a0<a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qYpC2b94Sbw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">our YouTube channel here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>How the Championship play-offs will work<\/p>\n<p>The teams who finish first and second in the league will massively benefit in this play-off system with both sides set to earn a bye in week one of the play-offs whilst also having second chances should they lose further in the play-offs.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 13 games will be played across five weeks with week one seeing four games played. The teams who place first and second will have a bye whilst teams placing seventh to tenth will play against each other in eliminators.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves teams from third to sixth playing qualifying games. Those who win will play first and second in qualifying finals, whilst the losers will play the winners of the eliminators in two elimination finals.<\/p>\n<p>That means by week three, just six teams remain with the winners of the qualifying finals progressing to home semi-finals. The losers of the qualifying finals then play the winners of the elimination finals, leading to a standard four-team semi-final stage.<\/p>\n<p>From there, it\u2019s a standard bracket but the highest-ranked semi-final winner will earn home advantage for the Grand Final.<\/p>\n<p>Below are a list of the games as well as a graphic to easier explain the system.<\/p>\n<p>Week 1<\/p>\n<p>Teams 1 &amp; 2 bye \u2013 through to Week 2<\/p>\n<p>Qualifying Semi Final 1 \u2013 3 v 5<\/p>\n<p>Qualifying Semi Final 2 \u2013 4 v 6<\/p>\n<p>Eliminator 1 \u2013 7 v 10<\/p>\n<p>Eliminator 2 \u2013 8 v 9<\/p>\n<p>Week 2<\/p>\n<p>Qualifying Final 1 \u2013 1 v Highest Ranked Qualifying Semi Final Winners<\/p>\n<p>Qualifying Final 2 \u2013 2 v Lowest Ranked Qualifying Semi Final Winners<\/p>\n<p>Elimination Final 1 \u2013 Highest Ranked Qualifying Semi Final Losers v Lowest Ranked Eliminator Winners<\/p>\n<p>Elimination Final 2 \u2013 Lowest Ranked Qualifying Semi Final Losers v Highest Ranked Eliminator Winners<\/p>\n<p>Week 3<\/p>\n<p>Winners of Qualifying Final 1 &amp; 2 \u2013 through to home semi finals<\/p>\n<p>Sudden Death Play Off 1 \u2013 Highest Ranked Loser of Qualifying Finals v Lowest Ranked Winner of Elimination Finals<\/p>\n<p>Sudden Death Play Off 2 \u2013 Lowest Ranked Loser of Qualifying Finals v Highest Ranked Winner of Elimination Finals<\/p>\n<p>Week 4<\/p>\n<p>Preliminary Final 1 \u2013 Highest Ranked Qualifying Final Winners v Lowest Ranked Sudden Death Play Off Winners<\/p>\n<p>Preliminary Final 2 \u2013 Lowest Ranked Qualifying Final Winners v Highest Ranked Sudden Death Play Off Winners<\/p>\n<p>Week 5<\/p>\n<p>Grand Final \u2013 Highest Ranked Winner of Preliminary Finals v Lowest Ranked Winner of Preliminary Finals<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83d\udc47 The 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Betfred?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Betfred<\/a> Championship Play-Off structure <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dbOUy32639\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/dbOUy32639<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rugby Football League (@TheRFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheRFL\/status\/2012112158424002988?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768085712_213_srl-logo.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the day of the 2026 Championship season beginning, the RFL have confirmed that the competition\u2019s play-off system&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-373538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}