Championship (Rugby League)
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| Current season | Championship 2015 |
| sport | Rugby league |
| League foundation | 1996 |
| Teams | 12 |
| Country countries |
 England France Canada 
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| Title holder | Hull Kingston Rovers (2017) |
| Record champions | Leigh Centurions (4) |
| TV partner | Sky Sports |
| ↑ Super League | |
The championship is the second highest English rugby league league. It was introduced for the first Super League season and consists of twelve teams. Championship has been called since 2009, before that it was called Division One, Premiership and National League One. The format has fluctuated a lot since it was founded; the so-called Super-8 system is currently used. The last two teams are relegated, while a maximum of 4 teams can be promoted. But it is also possible that not a single team will be promoted.
history
A second league, which was subordinate to the first, existed in the English rugby league before the Super League was founded. The first was established for the 1902/03 season and abolished after the 1904/05 season. After that, it should take until the 1962/63 season before there was a second division again, this was also short-lived and was abolished after the 1963/64 season. For the third time, a second league was introduced in 1973/74, which was to last until the Super League was founded in 1996. In the 1994/95 season, the penultimate before the foundation, a new third division (League 1) was founded. This was done through the following steps:
- From the first division, which comprised 16 teams, 5 teams (places 11-15) were relegated to the second division. The last placed team was relegated to the third division.
- From the second division, which also comprised 16 teams, 9 teams (places 8-16) descended in the third division. One of the remaining 7 teams was “promoted” to the first division.
- A club from the National Conference League was added to the third division.
This had formed three leagues with 11 teams each. Although there should be some small changes in 1996, such as the expansion of the Super League and League 1 to twelve teams, the format with three leagues remained the same. The type of ascent and descent varied a lot.
Between 1996 and 1998, the first team rose from the championship to the Super League, while the last two were relegated to League 1. The 1997 season was an exception, when the first two teams rose because Paris Saint-Germain would no longer participate in the Super League and you needed two teams to continue to have twelve first division clubs. For the 1999 season, in addition to the top of the table, another team was promoted to the Super League, so that the number of participants increased to 14. In 1999 and 2000 there was no promotion or relegation between the two leagues. Between 1999 and 2003, the Championship and League 1 were also combined into one league.
Between 2001 and 2007, the winner of the Championship Grand Final rose to the Super League. The Super League had reduced the number of participants to 12 in 2000, which changed again when another team was promoted in addition to the final winner in 2008, which increased the number of participants to 14 again. After that, there was no promotion or relegation until 2015, only a review of the teams that took place every three years, with the possibility of a doctorate.
For the 2015 season, a new promotion and relegation system was introduced in the Super League and the Championship, the Super 8 playoffs. In the Championship it works like this:
- After the regular season, the teams will be split into two groups. The first consists of the first four teams in the Championship and the last four teams in the Super League. In it everything is set to zero, that is, the points from the previous round do not matter. The remaining eight teams from the championship form a second group, in which the points from the previous round are taken with them, i.e. the fifth-placed team is first in the group at the beginning.
- Now 7 rounds are played, so everyone against everyone without a return game. In the first group, the first three go to the Super League, the fifth and sixth place play a relegation game and the seventh and eighth place come into the championship. In the second group, the first six come to the championship, while the seventh and eighth placed play a relegation game. The first four teams in the second group also play for a trophy, the Championship Shield.
