Competition Structure

The Regular Season

• The regular season consists of 27 rounds.
• Each team will play all other Super League teams home and away once.
• Clubs will also play one additional round during the Magic Weekend, which will be played at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium on May 26 and 27.
• The club finishing top of the competition table at the end of the regular season will receive the League Leaders’ Shield.

Competition Rules

Super League squads

• Each Super League club must nominate a first team squad of up to 25 players.
• Clubs may then make amendments to that first team squad during the season with the prior approval of the RFL.

Squad Announcement System

• Before each Super League and Carnegie Challenge Cup fixture, each Super League club must announce a squad of 19 players it will choose from for that match 48 hours before a game.
• Squad announcements will be made by 2pm on the appropriate day.
• Clubs cannot announce players who are not both correctly registered with the RFL and confirmed as a member of a club’s first team squad.

Salary Cap Rules

• All teams in Super League XVII will operate under a ‘real time’ salary cap system that calculates a club’s salary cap position at the start of and throughout the season.
• The combined earnings of the Top 25 players must not exceed £1.65 million.
• Clubs are only allowed to sign a player if they have room under the cap.
• Clubs can spend a maximum of £50,000 on players outside the Top 25 earners who have made at least one first grade appearance for the club during the year.
• Costs for players outside of the Top 25 earners, who do not make a first team appearance, will be unregulated.
• Any player who has played for the same Club for at least 10 consecutive seasons will have half their salary excluded from the Salary Cap for his eleventh and subsequent seasons. This is measured from the season in which the player was registered as a professional player with the club and is subject to a maximum of £50,000 for any one club.

Club Trained Player rule

The purpose behind the ‘Club Trained Player’ rule is to encourage clubs to develop and better their own players so that there are more players coming into the game so that standards improve.

A further purpose is to afford an opportunity to junior players to play in top level competitive matches in order to aid their development and ensure the development of Rugby League.

Club Trained Player

A Club Trained Player is one who has been on a club’s register for three full seasons before the end of the season in which he ceases to be eligible by age for Reserve Grade Rugby League.

Federation Trained Player

A Federation Trained Player is one who has been on the register of one or more member clubs in the same Rugby League Federation as the club he wishes to join (Great Britain for the majority, France in the case of players joining Catalan Dragons) for three full seasons before the end of the season in which he ceases to be eligible by age for Reserve Grade Rugby League.

Non-Federation Trained Player

A Player who does not meet either of the definitions above.