RFL chief outlines London Broncos’ next steps and how further Super League changes will be decided

The top dozen on the club grading table, published on Thursday, were granted an automatic place in the top-flight.

That included this year’s Super League teams, minus Salford Red Devils and with Bradford Bulls taking their place.

The other two, Toulouse Olympique and York Knights, were chosen by a panel, chaired by RFL non-executive director Lord Jonathan Caine.

Speaking following that announcement, out-going RFL chief executive Tony Sutton – who was also on the panel – revealed the current plan is for grading to decide all 14 clubs in a year’s time.

“The intent is that there won’t be panels every year to select,” Sutton confirmed. “The intent is that under the existing system, grading will decide the top-14, as it has been deciding top-12.”

But he admitted that could change if clubs decide otherwise. He added:  “Every year, once grading is completed, there’s always a series of meetings where we consider and discuss with clubs what we learned from it, what we could change and what we wouldn’t change.

“Those meetings are yet to come, so that system could well be tweaked as we move through 2026.”

Nine clubs applied, including Bradford Bulls, Huddersfield Giants and Hull FC who finished in the top 12 on club gradings.

Toulouse and York were 13th and 14th. London Broncos were 16th, one place behind Salford Red Devils who did not apply.

Sutton said: “We had nine strong applicants. Relatively early on five stood out and three went into the final level of consideration.

“York, Toulouse and London were among those five and the other two I’d add to that would be Widnes and Oldham.”

Widnes were graded 19th, with Oldham 25th. Sutton added: “They did a really good job of an application from lower down in the grading criteria pyramid and really displayed a strong level of information and an objective to progress.”

London Broncos failed to win a place, despite their recent takeover led by retiring Leeds Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington.

Sutton said on their reaction: “I think (in their press release) they reflected exactly what they did to me this morning. A year in the Championship, or maybe longer, for them they would hope a year in the Championship probably just to embed those back-office, objectives and progress they want to make particularly off field.

“They engaged really strongly in the process. They were disappointed, but understood the core points of what the panel fed back to them and were very clear about positive engagement in the Championship next year.”

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