{"id":96211,"date":"2025-08-27T11:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T11:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/96211\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T11:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T11:38:10","slug":"12-clubs-lodge-formal-expression-of-interest-to-join-proposed-expansion-of-super-league-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/96211\/","title":{"rendered":"12 clubs lodge formal expression of interest to join proposed expansion of Super League \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.totalrl.com\/12-clubs-lodge-formal-expression-of-interest-to-join-proposed-expansion-of-super-league\/\" title=\"Permanent Link to 12 clubs lodge formal expression of interest to join proposed expansion of Super League\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img width=\"675\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AW9_0694-675x360.jpg\" class=\"bestwp-post-thumbnail-single wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">12 clubs have met the deadline for lodging a formal expression of interest in joining the process for the proposed expansion of Super League to 14 clubs in 2026.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The clubs now have until September 12 to submit a full formal application for consideration by the seven-strong independent panel \u2013 with the decision on the composition of the 2026 Super League to be announced on October 16.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">A majority of the current 12 Super League clubs voted at a meeting on July 28 that the competition should be expanded to 14 in 2026, subject to conditions \u2013 with IMG\u2019s Club Grading System determining the first 12 places as previously, and also to form the basis for the considerations of a panel that would make decisions on places 13 and 14.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lord Jonathan Caine will be joined by two fellow non-executive RFL directors \u2013 Abi Ekoku and Dermot Power \u2013 plus the RFL Chief Executive Tony Sutton and interim Head of Legal Graeme Sarjeant; Rugby League Commercial\u2019s Managing Director Rhodri Jones; and Peter Hutton, the senior independent non-executive director of RL Commercial who is also a Super League (Europe) Board member.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to the five pillars under which clubs are judged in the Club Grading System (Fandom, Performance, Finances, Stadium and Community), the panel will judge applications against a further set of criteria relating to Finance and Sustainability.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">These include their financial performance in 2025; detailed financial performance and sustainability forecasts for the 2026, 2027 and 2028 seasons; and their ability to field a competitive team in 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the latter, analysis will be provided by the RFL\u2019s England Performance Unit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12 clubs have met the deadline for lodging a formal expression of interest in joining the process for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-96211","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\/96211","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=96211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}