{"id":327152,"date":"2025-08-08T06:05:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T06:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/327152\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T06:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T06:05:13","slug":"eamonn-mcmanus-super-league-expansion-can-continue-recent-growth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/327152\/","title":{"rendered":"Eamonn McManus: Super League expansion can &#8216;continue recent growth&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2026, the league will have 14 teams for the first time since 2014, after playing with just 12 for the 2015 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Clubs have been graded under media giant IMG and Rugby League Commercial&#8217;s &#8216;Reimagining Rugby League&#8217; initiative in the past two seasons, but only 2025&#8217;s league structure has been decided by its criteria, which saw London replaced by Wakefield in the top flight for this term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Under the system, Super League, Championship and League One clubs are assessed based on points calculated by on and off-field performance in order to decide who will make up the top flight, rather than promotion and relegation between the divisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">McManus added that, with outside influences such as the NRL&#8217;s expansion in the southern hemisphere and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c20qdxw09z4o\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">potential breakaway league in rugby union,<\/a> any additions to the Super League have to present a strong investment case to enhance the strength of the league.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This decision now has to be supported and complemented by a stronger investment case being developed for the game itself,&#8221; McManus added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Carefully and correctly selected competition growth can only enhance this essential objective.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2026, the league will have 14 teams for the first time since 2014, after playing with just&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-327152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114991642924605421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}