‘Great day for the region’: York join Toulouse in 14-team Super League
York Knights’ owner, Clint Goodchild, believes the club’s historic promotion to the Super League for the first time is a watershed moment for the whole of North Yorkshire, after they and Toulouse were granted admission to the top flight in 2026 and London Broncos missed the cut.The Knights will play in rugby league’s highest division for the first time since 1986 after they were selected by an independent panel alongside Toulouse to join the top 12 from Thursday’s IMG gradings and expand the Super League to 14 teams for the first time in more than a decade.Bradford Bulls, who finished 10th in those gradings, replace Salford Red Devils from this year’s 12-team lineup.The Knights, who were playing in League 1 as recently as 2018, and Toulouse have joined the Bulls among the elite after both dominated on the field throughout 2025.Goodchild, who bought the club in 2022, said York and the wider area were long overdue such success after the Knights became the first professional sporting team from there to play in a top division in almost 40 years.
“It’s a great day for the region,” he said.“A team from York that can represent the region in the highest tier in professional sport … it’s been a long time coming.Last time we were in this position was 1985-86 and hopefully we can kick on from here.”London were widely expected to be one of the two teams that were granted admission after a takeover of the club led by the Australian rugby league legend Darren Lockyer.However, they must now regroup and compete in the Championship for at least one more season.
The door to Super League remains ajar for the Broncos in 2027, with the gradings system that has determined promotion and relegation for the past two seasons scheduled to remain for next year as things stand.That means London would have to place inside the top 14 of the gradings at the end of next season, having finished 16th this year.“The intent is that there will not be extra panels every year to select the teams in Super League,” the outgoing Rugby Football League chief executive, Tony Sutton, said.“Under the existing system, gradings will decide the top 14 as it has done previously with the top 12.”Sutton said there were “five really strong applicants” for the two extra places in Super League, naming the Broncos, Widnes Vikings and Oldham as the three clubs who pushed York and Toulouse the closest for admission.
London have signed a number of high-profile players for 2026, including the Australia forward Reagan Campbell-Gillard, and they now face the remarkable prospect of walking out in places such as Batley and Workington rather than Wigan and St Helens,However, Lockyer said the new ownership group remain fully committed to achieving success in London despite missing out on promotion this year,“The Broncos are building with purpose and clarity, and there is real belief in what can be achieved,” he said,“Our coach and many of our significant player signings for 2026 were committed to this regardless of the Super League decision and we will work hard together to achieve a new goal of winning the Championship in 2026,”As for York, they can look forward to those marquee matches against Wigan and the newly crowned champions, Hull KR.
The Knights and Toulouse will receive only half the central funding the top 12 in the gradings receive – about £650,000 – but Goodchild has stressed they are aiming to be competitive and capture the imagination of people in North Yorkshire.“There are over 2,000 season-ticket holders at clubs like Hull FC, Hull KR and Leeds who live in a York postcode,” he said.“People want to see elite sport and they want to see the big brands.Now that we’re playing on their level in a local area, we’ll see how many convert to their home team.“The city of York is buzzing.
We’re going in there to make a difference and we will not be playing catchup,”
UK government borrowing costs fall to lowest level since July
The UK government’s borrowing costs have fallen to the lowest level since July as Rachel Reeves considers tax rises and spending cuts before next month’s autumn budget.In a boost for the chancellor, the yield – in effect the interest rate – on 10-year UK government bonds has fallen by about 0.15 percentage points this week, after briefly dipping below 4.5% early on Friday for the first time in three months.Government bond yields have tumbled across advanced economies, as investors scrambled to buy safe-haven assets amid fears over US-China trade tensions and signs of stress in the US banking system
Gaucho chain to slash waiters’ share of service charge and boost head office pay
The Argentinian steak restaurant Gaucho is slashing the share of the service charge its waiters receive, using some of the funds to bump up the pay package of head office workers.A letter to workers seen by the Guardian says that from 1 October existing waiters would receive between 25.45% and 29.4% of the service charge collected at tables they have served, depending on length of service, down from 37% previously – already a reduction from 45% early last year. Bar staff will get 17% of the service charge, down from 20%
‘Finances are getting tighter’: US car repossessions surge as more Americans default on auto loans
Alarm bells are ringing on Wall Street. The recent collapses of Tricolor, a used car seller and sub-prime auto lender, and First Brands, an auto parts supplier, have put the finance industry on edge, almost two decades after problems in the sub-prime mortgage lending market set the stage for the global financial crisis.“When you see one cockroach, there are probably more,” Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase CEO, ominously cautioned analysts this week, after the US’s largest bank disclosed a $170m charge tied to Tricolor’s bankruptcy. “Everyone should be forewarned on this one.”As the car lending market shows signs of strain, business around repossessions is booming
Ferrari cuts number of cars it sends to UK after non-dom tax status scrapped
Ferrari has cut the number of cars it sells in the UK as wealthy individuals relocate overseas after tax changes and the abolition of non-dom status.The Italian luxury carmaker reportedly began limiting the number of vehicles it exported to the UK about six months ago, in an attempt to stop a decline in their residual value.Benedetto Vigna, the chief executive of the carmaker, said that Ferrari had seen a “stabilisation” in sales after its decision to reduce the number of vehicles it allocated to the UK.“Some people are getting out of that country for tax reasons,” he told the Financial Times, adding that taxes were not the only reason for the fall in residual values. “There are many different factors
The ‘messy’ trend behind Australia’s rising unemployment is worrying economists
As Jim Chalmers moves among the global elite during the G20 talkfest with fellow finance ministers and big-time investors in Washington this week, he will be spruiking Australia’s enviable economic performance over recent years.A particular point of pride has been the strength of the labour market.Not only has unemployment stayed low, the increase in the share of working-age Australians with a job has climbed by 3.1 percentage points since immediately before the pandemic.That increase is twice the OECD average, and compares with zero growth in the US and New Zealand
Australia Post incorrectly charged tariffs on items ordered online being returned to the US
Australia Post incorrectly collected tariffs from customers returning items to the US after retail parcel services to the country resumed last week, the government-owned postal service has admitted.Australia Post said it had identified an error with a third-party provider where “a number of customers” were incorrectly charged a tariff for postal returns of US-manufactured items, which should not be subject to import duties.“The error was quickly fixed, and we are reaching out to impacted customers,” a spokesperson said in a statement. They will receive a refund.Parcel services were halted in August when the US suspended the “de minimis” exemption, which allowed parcels worth less than US$800 to enter the country duty-free
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