The Super League and Championship seasons are well underway yet the only thing that seems certain for 2027 is that London Broncos will be in the top flight.
There has been no real confirmation on how promotion and relegation between the two divisions will work, in light of the increase to 14 teams. There seems to be a hope that an unwanted club finishes bottom, to pave the way for London to step up, as surely would have been the case had Toulouse not upset the apple cart by beating York in last year’s Championship Grand Final.
Instead, much of the talk has been about how can clubs survive given the turmoil that Salford, Featherstone and Halifax – three of the bigger and better supported clubs outside of the top flight – have suffered.
Super League could barely care less, and their attention is on just whether the NRL are planning some sort of takeover, or partnership, to help propel the game forward.
The NRL involvement
The World Cup, originally awarded to both the USA and France for 2025 before both countries ended up pulling out, will be held in Australia later this year, giving a chance for all the rugby league powers that be to get together.
There are also games being held in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, and the World Cup betting will undoubtedly have Australia, the 12-time winners, as the overwhelming favourites.
Whether there is to be a takeover of sorts by the NRL over Super League would surely have had to have been sorted out by then, though it wouldn’t be unsurprising given the nature of rugby league governance over the past 20 years.
The NRL is a behemoth and its TV deal and finances dwarf Super League. Hull KR’s recent World Club Challenge win over Brisbane Broncos is even more of a miracle when you consider the value of the respective teams, and clubs. In 2027, the NRL salary cap is set to climb to $12.1m, which is around three times what the current Super League salary cap is.
Although NRL chief Peter V’landys has come out and talked about Super League, details on just what is on offer and/or is being proposed remain sparse.
It seems unlikely that the NRL would take over Super League as is, because the individual clubs all have their own individual businesses, contracts and commitments which would make signing it over complicated.
The smarter money could be on some form of breakaway competition, where the NRL put up what they’ve got on offer on their own terms, and it’s up to clubs to then decide whether they want to be a part of it. It is thought the likes of Wigan, Warrington and the two Hull clubs are on board, while Catalans, Toulouse and London are far less tied to the RFL for various reasons. If a new competition springs up and those clubs jump, then clubs like Leeds and St Helens will almost have no choice but to follow.
An NRL takeover would almost certainly spell the end of any form of promotion and relegation; with the only chance of earning place then being via a franchise system, and this time it would be one that surely wouldn’t be open to clubs like Widnes.
Could an Australian charm offensive be a way forward for Widnes?
Although the past 10 years has been spent licking wounds and out of the spotlight, Widnes’ name still carries some weight in the rugby league world. It’s still one of only now six English clubs to have won the World Club Challenge. In terms of honours over the years, Widnes are still up in the top 10. And heck, even if you ask ChatGPT, Widnes are in the top 10 of most famous rugby league teams from the UK.
Widnes do have a dedicated rugby league stadium too. They showed the pathway can be created for the academy, and the fanbase is just about there; with the potential to reach out to Liverpool and North Wales.
How did we get here?
The constant structure changes within the game over the past three decades have at times locked Widnes out. Controversially excluded from the original Super League line up in 1996, barely six years after being champions of the world, Widnes earned their place back at the top table by the traditional route of promotion on the field ahead of 2002.
Relegated in 2005, albeit in the only season two went down from 12 to accommodate Catalans, was then followed by two Grand Final defeats before Super League became a closed shop for four seasons via licensing.
Having done things by the book during that time, Widnes earned their place back in 2012 before being relegated again at the end of 2018 when relegation returned via on-field performance through the Super 8s system.
The scrapping of the licensing system at the end of 2014 was rumoured to be a reason why Steve O’Connor lost interest, having previously bankrolled Widnes’ return to Super League, notably the funding of the academy system, some of the fruits of which still feature regularly in the top flight today.
If relegation didn’t exist, I don’t think there would have ever been any calls to kick Widnes out of Super League between 2012-18. The team was competitive, the crowds were OK, there were plenty of academy products being brought through to the first team and the facilities were there.
Unfortunately since then, administration meant Widnes were nowhere near competing for promotion in 2019, and then the 2020 season was cancelled. The Grand Final winners did earn promotion between 2021-23, but again Widnes weren’t close.
Since then, the IMG ratings have decided who sits in the top flight, but it has always been weighted against Championship clubs – though Bradford proved, somehow, that there was a possibility to disrupt it.
The last chance saloon?
The problem Widnes face, as discussed on a recent podcast, is that they sit on a precipice between Super League and a long-term future in the Championship. Other than London, Widnes are probably now the only current Championship club that could mobilise for Super League in the short-term. But their ability to do that is waning as each year passes, not least because fans are simply losing interest.
If Super League, or NRL Europe, shuts the trap door and Widnes aren’t in, then it could be a case of retreating and simply accepting the future is as a part-time club in the Championship and hope at some point, the RFL decide to invest and make it a competition worth being in and a competition worth winning.
It’s increasingly looking like Super League will eventually be a stand-alone competition, possibly of more teams, but the only way to come in would be as a strategic addition (for that, read someone with a lot of money or playing in a perceived glamorous location).
The most frustrating thing is the impact it has on clubs in the meantime. Widnes as a club wants to be the best it can be, but how can it sell itself to potential fans, sponsors and otherwise when it has no idea what it’s working towards or what the future holds?
