Five New Year wishes for rugby league in 2026 including Super League, TV deal and RFL clarity

Heading into 2026, we’ve got plenty of New Year wishes for rugby league but we’ve limited them to just five so as not to be greedy.

The 2025 season was full of twists and turns, plenty of highs and some new lows. The elation of Hull KR ending their trophy drought in style with a treble was balanced out by the shameful happenings at Salford as their fate was sealed.

Featherstone Rovers suffered a similar fate with the Championship club also going into liquidation but at the same time, another Championship team received major investment in the shape of London.

We saw the return of the Ashes and the debut of Super League in Las Vegas, things that couldn’t have possibly been hoped for just a few years ago.

Now, on January 1st 2026, we’ve picked out five rugby league New Year wishes that we want to see fulfilled by the end of the year.

Five rugby league wishes for 2026

An improved TV deal

Perhaps the most important wish is that A, there is a TV deal for 2027 and beyond, and B, it’s largely improved in terms of coverage and investment.

Sky Sports have supported Super League throughout it’s existence and the decision by Super League clubs to move to 14 teams mid-season, thus thrusting extra games on the broadcaster at short notice for 2026 surely came as a shock for Sky.

Hopefully, that’s not weakened any ties as rugby league needs to secure a new TV deal, be that with Sky or another broadcaster. It also needs to be larger in respect to the money clubs recieve and larger in terms of how much the fans can watch.

Competitive promoted sides

With Salford having such a poor year off the field, their on-field performances were understandably impacted and Super League became farcical at times. With the competition now expanding to 14 teams, the question has been asked if there is enough quality to sustain two more teams.

Let’s hope there is because another season of weekly blowout scores hampers any future TV deal but also the sport on the whole because uncompetitive games are simply not interesting or engaging.

Atop the three promoted sides being competitive, an extra wish would be for the likes of Huddersfield and Castleford to have improved years, following in the footsteps of Hull FC from 2025.

Successful rebuilds and financial stability

As referenced above, 2025 saw two teams go into either administration or liquidation and whilst Salford have had their RFL membership confirmed, Featherstone are yet to have theirs locked in.

Seeing both sides complete the 2026 season is the minimum wish but if both sides can get onto some sort of stable financial footing then that would be the ideal New Years wish.

On the other hand are London, whose project is one of the most exciting in rugby league and seeing just how far the Broncos can go in 2026 will be an interesting one.

RFL appointments

After a year of turmoil at the governing body that saw both Simon Johnson and Tony Sutton leave among several others, there needs to be clarity on what the RFL actually looks like in terms of who runs the sport.

Abi Ekoku is currently the interim CEO whilst Nigel Wood remains involved with his Strategic Review, something that must provide clarity and also be handed in alongside a clear and established set of directors and personnel to guide the sport forward.

Clarity on England

Linking in with the RFL’s uncertainty, we still don’t know what is going on with England. At present, the RFL are reviewing the Ashes and Shaun Wane’s position as head coach but it seems that whoever is head coach won’t have a warm up game before the World Cup.

At the very least, training sessions need to happen with spare weekends such as the Challenge Cup Final weekend a prime slot for the squad, bar those at Wembley, to get together.

The decision on Wane should have been made in November or December and with each day that ticks by, England’s slim chances of a World Cup win decrease as the uncertainty grows.

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