- published: 30 Jun 2016
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Super League is the top-level professional rugby league club competition in Europe. As the result of a sponsorship deal, it is officially the Stobart Super League. The League has fourteen teams: thirteen from England and one from France. The current champions are Leeds.
Super League began in 1996, replacing the RFL Championship and switching from a winter to a summer season. Each team plays 27 games between February and September: 13 home games, 13 away games and a Magic Weekend game at a neutral venue. At the end of the season, the top eight teams enter play-offs leading to the Grand Final which determines the champions.
St Helens, Leeds, Bradford and Wigan have been the dominant teams in the Super League. The Super League champions play against the winners of the Australasian National Rugby League in the World Club Challenge.
The competition was first mooted during the Australian Super League war as a way for Rupert Murdoch to gain the upper hand during the battle for broadcasting supremacy with the Australian Rugby League. Murdoch also approached the British clubs to form Super League. A large sum of money aided the decision, and the competition got under way in 1996. Part of the deal saw rugby league switch from a winter to a summer season.