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York Knights and Toulouse Olympique will play in an expanded 14-team Super League next season after being selected to join rugby league's top flight by an independent panel.
Bradford Bulls were promoted to Super League on Thursday having taken the place of financially troubled Salford Red Devils thanks to jumping from 16th to 10th in this year's grading system, meaning three Championship teams will move up to the top flight from 2026.
Earlier this year, Super League's 12 current clubs voted to expand the competition to 14 teams from next season - the first time the league will have operated with that number since 2014.
York will play in Super League for the first time while Toulouse will return to the top tier for the first time since their one-season stint in 2022.
Nine applications were submitted and considered by a panel which was chaired by Lord Jonathan Caine as well as two non-executive Rugby Football League (RFL) directors Abi Ekoku and Dermot Power, RFL chief executive Tony Sutton, interim head of legal Graeme Sarjeant, RL Commercial managing director Rhodri Jones and Super League (Europe) board member Peter Hutton.
The panel judged applications against each club's financial performance in 2025, as well as their financial performance and sustainability forecasts for 2026 to 2028 and their ability to "field a competitive team in 2026 and beyond".
York, who finished top of the Championship table and won the League Leaders' Shield this season, in addition to lifting the 1895 Cup at Wembley, were founded as a phoenix club in the early 2000s.
Their ascension to Super League means that top-level rugby league will return to the city for the first time since 1985-86.
Toulouse were founded in 1937 and were forced to switch back to union under the Vichy regime in World War Two, but returned to rugby league in 1945 when the sport was permitted, reaching successive French Championship finals in the aftermath.
Toulouse, who became the first French club to reach the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup in 2005, briefly joined the British league system between 2009 and 2010 and have played consistently in it since 2016.
They were relegated from Super League having finished bottom in their only stint in the top flight three years ago, and stunned York earlier this month to win the Championship Grand Final.
Lord Caine said that Toulouse and York would be "worthy and deserving additions" to Super League and said that the decision of the panel was unanimous.
"They were 13th and 14th on the club gradings, with a significant lead on any of the other applicants from the Championship," he said.
"As was set out on 19 August, it was always the panel's intention to use those gradings as one of the criteria in our deliberations, along with enhanced financial scrutiny and an assessment of competitiveness.
"The panel's deliberations were conducted on the basis of fairness, impartiality, independence and confidentiality. The panel was unanimous in its final decision to choose Toulouse Olympique and York Knights."
