| avg_attendance = 1,231 | points = 1,775 | season = 2026 season | season_champ_name = Grand Final winners | season_champs = London Broncos | season_champs_count = | league_leaders_name = League Leaders' Shield | league_leaders = London Broncos | league_leaders_count = | wooden_spoon_name = | wooden_spoon = | biggest_home_win = 120–0 | biggest_away_win = 0–134 | top_scorer = Jimmy Meadows (182) | top try scorer = Morea Morea (25) | prevseason_link = 2025 RFL Championship | prevseason_year = 2025 | nextseason_link = 2027 RFL Championship | nextseason_year = 2027
The 2026 RFL Championship (officially known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league club competition. The second tier of the British rugby league system comprises 20 clubs - this is due to the Rugby Football League (RFL) announcing that the Championship and League One competitions were to be combined for the 2026 season.
The Grand Final and League Leaders Shield were both won by London Broncos.
Team changes Due to the merging of the third tier League One with the Championship into one competition, the Championship increased from 13 clubs to 21 for the 2026 season.
The clubs joining the Championship from League One are:
Dewsbury Rams Goole Vikings Keighley Cougars Midlands Hurricanes Newcastle Thunder North Wales Crusaders Rochdale Hornets Swinton Lions Whitehaven Workington Town
If the two divisions had not been merged, North Wales would have been promoted to the Championship anyway as winners of the 2025 RFL League One season.
On 16 October 2025 the Bradford Bulls were to be promoted to the Super League and were replaced by the Salford Red Devils. Salford were relegated from Super League via the IMG grading system, as was Bradford's elevation. The following day the two teams joining the Super League as a result of its expansion to 14 teams were announced. Toulouse Olympique and the York Knights were promoted via an independent panel.
On 3 December 2025, Salford was liquidated as a result of unpaid debts to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and as a result had their membership with the RFL terminated, and would no longer compete in the Championship. The RFL hoped that a phoenix club could be created to contest the fixtures, with Salford having until 11 December to submit a viable proposal with a decision scheduled for 17 December. On 17 December, the timeline was extended. On 22 December, a phoenix club was approved to complete in the 2026 Championship.
Featherstone Rovers went into administration in December 2025 and as no satisfactory bid to take over the club emerged by the week before the start of the season, the RFL removed the club from the 2026 season. Further complications arose when Halifax Panthers were wound-up following non-payment of monies due to HMRC on 9 February 2026. The Panthers' membership of the RFL, and therefore the club's permission to participate in the Championship, was withdrawn on 11 February. On 3 March, the RFL granted membership to a new Halifax Panthers club who re-joined the Championship with a 12-point deduction.
North Wales Crusaders were the next team to hit difficulties as the owners withdrew further funding on 9 April. The club's game against Keighley Cougars took place but only because two Crusaders' fans paid the players' wages. The subsequent 1895 Cup game against Midlands Hurricanes was forfeited by the Crusaders and the next scheduled league game against Doncaster was postponed on 27 April after many players left the club. On 6 May, the RFL terminated the Crusaders' membership due to an insolvency event. The following day, the RFL announced that it had approved membership of a new ownership group for the remainder of the 2026 season. The club also received a 12-point deduction.
Fixtures format The growth from 13 to an originally-planned 21 teams required the development of a new fixture scheduling format, with 40 fixtures deemed far too many for the calendar. A new format, described as a 'pendulum system', was devised, to retain 24 fixtures as in the previous Championship season. To allocate 20 of the fixtures per club, teams play two matches, home and away, against the 10 clubs that finished closest to them in the previous season.
For example, London Broncos, having finished 10th in the 2025 Championship, will play the teams who finished: 5th to 9th and 11th to 13th in the 2025 Championship; and 1st and 2nd in the 2025 League One. Salford, the highest-ranked team having been relegated from the Super League in 2025, will play the 10 teams who finished 3rd to 12th in the 2025 Championship (clubs in 1st and 2nd having been promoted to the 2026 Super League), while Newcastle Thunder, the lowest-ranked team having finished 10th in 2025 League One, will play the nine teams from the 2025 League One plus the 13th placed team from the 2025 Championship.
The final four fixtures are home and away ties against two teams, primarily based on ensuring local derby matches could take place, and then filling up the fixture list to minimise overall travel. These games only include matches between teams that were not previously scheduled: for example, the three most northerly teams - Whitehaven, Workington and Newcastle - were already due to play each other, and so did not have extra games scheduled between them. Rather, all three were given games against the Cumbrian team Barrow, with Workington being drawn against Widnes, Whitehaven against Sheffield and Newcastle against Batley.
After Featherstone withdrew, a new round of replacement fixtures were announced for the clubs due to have played Featherstone. This reverted a decision to not schedule new fixtures, which would have shifted the table to being decided by win percentage rather than competition points. No further information regarding the Championship structure was given at this time other than the postponement of the Halifax game against Sheffield scheduled for 15 February.
Clubs Stadiums and locations
Team2025 PositionHead coachCaptainStadiumCapacityGrading 9th Paul Crarey Ryan Johnston Craven Park 4,000 B 12th James Ford Alistair Leak, Dane Manning Mount Pleasant 7,500 B 4th League One Paul March George Senior Crown Flatt 5,100 C 8th Richard Horne Cory Aston Eco-Power Stadium 15,231 B 7th League One Scott Taylor Brett Ferres Victoria Pleasure Grounds 3,000 C 5th Kyle Eastmond Ben Crooks The Shay 10,401 B 13th Kyle Trout Billy Jowitt South Leeds Stadium 3,450 C 9th League One Matty Beharrell Cougar Park 7,800 10th Jason Demetriou Reagan Campbell-Gillard Plough Lane 9,215 B 5th League One Mark Dunning Jon Luke Kirby Avery Fields 1,500 C 10th League One Graham Steadman Crow Trees Ground 2,000 1st League One Dom Horn Eirias Stadium 5,500 C 4th Alan Kilshaw Matty Wildie Boundary Park 13,186 B 6th League One Gary Thornton Ross Whitmore Spotland Stadium 10,249 C 12th Super League Brad Dwyer Salford Community Stadium 12,000 B 11th Craig Lingard Joel Farrell B 3rd League One Gavin Rodden Heywood Road 3,387 C 8th League One Jordan Burns Recreation Ground 7,500 C 7th Allan Coleman Jack Owens Halton Stadium 13,350 B 2nd League One Jonty Gorley Stevie Scholey Derwent Park 10,000 C
Regular season Results
Table
Play-offs
A 10 team play-off structure based on the McIntyre system which allows higher qualified teams to lose more games before being eliminated compared to lower qualified teams was introduced for this year. System summary Week 1 (four games) 1st–2nd: Bye to week 2 Qualifiers 3rd–6th: Qualifiers Winners progress to week 2 Qualifiers Losers progress to week 2 Eliminators 7th–10th: Eliminators Winners progress to week 2 Eliminators Losers eliminated Week 2 (four games) Qualifiers Winners bye to week 4 Losers progress to week 3 Eliminators Winners progress to week 3 Losers eliminated Week 3 (two games) Preliminary semi-finals Winners progress to week 4 Losers eliminated Week 4 (two games) Semi-finals Winners progress to week 5 Losers eliminated Week 5 (one game) Grand Final
Player statistics
Top 10 try scorers RankPlayer (s)ClubTries1 Neil Tchamambe London Broncos28 Gairo Voro London Broncos3 Brad Ward Newcastle Thunder264 Morea Morea London Broncos255 Luke Smith London Broncos21 Billy Walkley Sheffield Eagles7 Jordan Lipp Newcastle Thunder208 Matthew Chrimes Midlands Hurricanes19 Andy Djeukessi Newcastle Thunder Luke Forber North Wales Crusaders / OldhamAs of 24 August 20262026 Betfred Championship Players - Tries
Top 10 goal scorers RankPlayer (s)ClubGoals1 Jimmy Meadows London Broncos1152 Connor Robinson Doncaster783 Myles Harrison Newcastle Thunder754 Brad Walker Barrow Raiders705 Ciaran Walker Whitehaven696 Jack Miller Goole Vikings617 Jacob Hookem Dewsbury Rams59 Sully Medforth Midlands Hurricanes Ben Reynolds Batley Bulldogs10 Kieran Dixon Oldham / Salford55As of 6 August 20262026 Betfred Championship Players - Goals
Top 10 point scorers RankPlayer (s)ClubPoints1 Jimmy Meadows London Broncos2582 Ciaran Walker Whitehaven1823 Connor Robinson Doncaster1684 Myles Harrison Newcastle Thunder1665 Ben Reynolds Batley Bulldogs1546 Gairo Voro London Broncos1527 Brad Walker Barrow Raiders1468 Kieran Dixon Oldham / Salford134 Sully Medforth Midlands Hurricanes10 Jack Miller Goole Vikings130 As of 6 August 20262026 Betfred Championship Players - Points
Discipline
Yellow cards
RankPlayer (s)Club Cards1 Luke Broadbent Barrow Raiders2 Dan Coates Dewsbury Rams Bradley Graham Lachlan Lanskey Keighley Cougars Josh Drinkwater Oldham R.L.F.C. Tom Nisbet Oldham RLFC3 Brad Dwyer Barrow Raiders1 Joe Bullock Ryan Johnston Robbie Butterworth Batley Bulldogs Felix Ellis Bailey O'Connor Dewsbury Rams Jacob Parkinson Luke Briscoe Doncaster RLFC Brett Ferres Goole Vikings Will Brough Halifax Panthers Jacob Fairbank Dan Abram Hunslet RLFC Zak Lloyd Alfie Dean Keighley Cougars Izaac Farrell David Foggin-Johnston Siliva Havili London Broncos Epel Kapinias Oliver Roberts Midlands Hurricanes Mikey Wood Mitch Clark Newcastle Thunder Andy Djeukessi King Vuniyayawa Noah Whittingham Harry Coleman North Wales Crusaders Bailey Dawson Josh Eaves Jordy Gibson Mark Ioane Matthew Lightfoot Dec Patton Junior Westwood Matty Ashurst Oldham RLFC Ted Chapelhow Matty Wildie Jamie Dallimore Rochdale Hornets Dylan Kelly-Duffy Harry Bowes Sheffield Eagles Alex Foster Josh Hodson Martyn Reilly Deane Meadows Swinton Lions Louie Roberts George Roby Mike Butt Widnes Vikings Jay Chapelhow
Red cards RankPlayer (s)Club Cards1 Danny Addy Dewsbury Rams1 Harry Coleman North Wales Crusaders Will Fernley Jamie Dallimore Rochdale Hornets Samuel Kibula Swinton Lions Ellis Nixon Whitehaven RLFC As of 17 June 2026
Notes
References