Statement | Promotion & Relegation

Betfred Super League welcomes the RFL’s decision to scrap promotion and relegation for the 2020 season.

Our clubs have made their views clear for some time on both matters and maintain strongly that neither promotion nor relegation is fair or appropriate given the significant financial and operational challenges presented by COVID-19.

Given the material compromises to the Super League schedule it would be wrong to relegate a Super League team at the end of the current campaign. That logic applies equally to promotion from the Championship.

Our Clubs do, however, recognise the sensitivity of this issue for those outside Super League. As a consequence, and notwithstanding the fact that the competitive integrity of Championship will also be diminished, they have agreed to pay a substantial sum in prize money to the relevant teams on the conclusion of a revised but still meaningful Championship season.

We continue to address the short-term implications of the Wolfpack’s decision to stand down on the 2020 campaign and will discuss the lasting consequences on the club, Super League and the Game, in the near future.

EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN ROBERT ELSTONE:

"From the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the biggest challenge for all of us has been uncertainty and probably the most significant unknown has been whether a Super League club will be relegated at the end of the 2020 season. 

"Whilst we are confident that the 2020 season will deliver some memorable action, it will play out very differently to how we envisaged.

"For that reason, the decision to suspend promotion and relegation is the right one, and one that will allow all of us to move forward to August 2 with the confidence required for the foreseeable future.

"As noted, we will now carefully consider Toronto Wolfpack’s decision to stand down in 2020 and the implications of that on the 2021 season."