Licensing was introduced in 2009 as an alternative to automatic promotion and relegation. It was supposed to improve the stadiums, finances and quality of teams in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

History

2009–11

The licensing system was announced by the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisa ...

(RFL) in May 2005 to improve the overall quality of the

and make it more like the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

as being a closed competition. The last season of promotion and relegation was in 2007 and from then on clubs had to apply for a licence to compete in Super League from 2009-2011. The RFL set certain criteria that needed to be met to be awarded a licence. Three different licences were awarded; A, B and C licence. A points system was used to decide which licence a club would be awarded based on the criteria they meet. Clubs could still be expelled from Super League if they under performed or broke the contract of the licence. Teams that were awarded a licence were given feedback on things they should change and improve for the next licensing period. For the 2009–11 Super League licences period Salford City Reds and Celtic Crusaders were awarded a C licence and elevated to Super League. The 2009-11 licences were:

2012–14

For the second period of licensing, 2012–14, all 14

clubs were allowed to apply with no criteria to meet but some clubs had been warned about improvement they promised to deliver for the 2012 season. Championship clubs could apply if they met certain criteria such as playing in the 2009 or 2010 Grand Finals or won the Championship Cup. Five Championship clubs were eligible to apply for a licence but only three applied. Only one Championship club,

Widnes Vikings The Widnes Vikings are an English rugby league club in Widnes, Cheshire, which competes in the Betfred Championship. The club plays home matches at the Halton Stadium. Founded as Widnes Football Club, they are one of the original twenty-two ...

, was promoted although Halifax were awarded a licence but not promoted and

Barrow Raiders The Barrow Raiders are a semi-professional rugby league team in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The club was formed in 1875 as Barrow Football Club. For the 1995–96 and 1996 seasons the club was known as Barrow Braves, becoming the Bar ...

did not meet all of the criteria. There was much debate about which Super League team would be relegated and how many teams would be promoted until Celtic Crusaders withdrew their application and went into administration. The full licences were given to: It was announced in 2013 that the RFL had chosen to scrap licensing and bring back promotion and relegation for 2015 which resulted in a major restructure of the British rugby league system.

Criticism

Licensing was first criticised when it was announced in 2005 with Championship clubs calling the Super League a closed shop and that Championship clubs had no incentive to compete at a high level and that most of the talent in the Championship was going to leave to play in Super League, therefore widening the gap between Super League and Championship. It was also criticised as teams at the bottom end had potentially nothing to play for if they couldn't reach the play-offs and there is no threat of relegation which meant an increase in uncompetitive games. In 2011 the RFL was criticised for only elevating one team to Super League after

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

folded. Many clubs thought Wakefield Trinity Wildcats should have been relegated as they had struggled in Super League and had previously had financial difficulties and not developed or built a new stadium.

References

External links