The first season of
rugby league (1895–96) saw all the clubs play in a single league competition. The addition of new teams and the problems of travelling led to the league being split in two for the following season; into the
Yorkshire League and the
Lancashire League. In the 1897–98 season Lancashire added professional second and third competitions, but the third competition only lasted one season. Yorkshire added a professional second competition (split west and east to reduce travelling) for the 1898–99 season. The bottom teams from the senior competition played a promotion/relegation test match against the winner of their county's second competition. This arrangement lasted until the 1901–02, when the top clubs from each league formed a single new competition. This saw the Lancashire and Yorkshire Senior Leagues elect numerous clubs from the second competitions (5 from Lancashire and 7 from Yorkshire) with the second competitions subsequently scrapped and teams excluded from the senior competitions joining either the Lancashire Combination (reserve grade) and a new Yorkshire Senior League or reverting to amateur status, either within the Northern Union or in the case of many Yorkshire clubs back to
rugby union. However, many clubs folded and some even switched to
association football. The following season most of the remaining clubs in the Yorkshire and Lancashire Leagues were re-organised to form a
Second Division, although four teams from the Yorkshire League and two from the Lancashire league were not elected to the new second division (but South Shields who had played in no league in 1901–02 were). In 1905–06, the two divisions were re-combined into a
single competition. Initially clubs arranged all their own fixtures with the condition that they had to play teams they do play both home and away. After this a new structure was introduced where clubs played all the teams in their own county on a home-and-away basis, results counting towards the re-formed Yorkshire and Lancashire Leagues, although due to imbalance in number of teams it was common for a Yorkshire club to have to play in the Lancashire League. They also had home-and-away fixtures scheduled against a small number of teams in the other competition (usually three); all results were collated into a single table for the Championship. In order to even up the competition a top-four play-off series was used to determine the Championship. Apart from the interventions of the
world wars, this system was retained until 1962–63, when the league briefly returned to a two divisional system. This lasted only two seasons, and in 1964–65 they went back to one large division subdivided into county leagues, but the play-off were expanded to the top 16 teams. In 1973–74 they again went back to two divisions. The play-off and the Yorkshire and Lancashire League were abandoned, though a new play-off type competition, the Club Championship was introduced to replace the championship play-offs. The following season saw the title change to
Premiership and the format was altered so that only the top eight teams in the First Division would compete. A similar competition was later instituted for clubs in the lower league(s). In the 1991–92 and 1992–93 seasons, a
Third Division was played. However, the league reverted to two divisions for the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons, controversially demoting three clubs to the
National Conference League in the process. In 1996 the Premiership was replaced by the
Super League. The clubs outside of Super League played in the First Division which now came under Super League, and the clubs that previously played in Division Three now played in a retitled the Second Division. Between 1999 and 2002, rugby league below Super League was re-organised into one large competition, the
Northern Ford Premiership. In 2003, the NFP was divided into
National Leagues 1 and 2 with a
National League 3 made up from sides drawn from the
Rugby League Conference and
British Amateur Rugby League Association winter leagues. It was intended that at some future point promotion and relegation would be allowed between National League 3 and National League 2, however, in 2006 National League 3 was rebranded Rugby League Conference National Division and plans for promotion and relegation were scrapped. In 2009, the National Leagues were renamed the Championship and Championship 1. Between 2009 and 2014 automatic promotion and relegation between Super League and the Championship was replaced by a franchise system. Teams in the Championship would have to apply for a licence to play in Super League. Licences were reviewed every 5 years. In 2013, it was announced that there was to be a review into the structure of the Rugby League system in Europe. Clubs, fans and sponsors were asked about their needs from the system. Three options were reviewed; one system using two leagues of 10, with the
Super League and
Championship having one
promotion and relegation place between the two. The format of promotion was to be decided later. The second option was the same system, with Promotion and Relegation between the two, but with 12 teams in each division. The third option was most radical, and featured two leagues of 12, which would, after 11 games, split to three groups of 8. This would be mixed with a new funding structure. On 17 January 2014, it was announced the third option had been selected, but had been changed to split after 23 games, which would be a complete round-robin and an added fixture, the
Magic Weekend. From 2015, this was decided to be the new structure. In preparation for the new structure, it was decided across the two leagues,
Championship and
Super League, there would be a season of realignment, in which five clubs would be relegated from the Championship, and one promoted to the Championship, and two teams would be relegated from the Super League to the Championship. This meant that the Super League, from 2015, would be made up of the 12 remaining teams from the
Super League XIX season, and a Championship made up of the two relegated teams from the Super League, one team promoted from the
2014 Championship 1 and the nine remaining Championship teams. League 1, which would be modelled on the Championship, would be made out of the five relegated Championship teams, 8 current League 1 teams, and
Coventry Bears. ==Men's structure==