The National Conference League (known as the Impact Performance National Conference League for sponsorship reasons and often abbreviated to simply NCL) is the fourth tier of the male British rugby league structure, currently consisting of top-level amateur clubs based wholly within Northern England.

Since 2012, the National Conference League operates over a summer season in line with the professional game.

History

The league was founded as the BARLA National League for the 1986–87 season with 10 teams: Dudley Hill, Egremont Rangers, Heworth, Leigh Miners Welfare (now Leigh Miners Rangers), Milford Marlins, Millom, Pilkington Recs, West Hull, Wigan St Patrick's and Woolston Rovers. The original NCL concept was one team per town.

The league added a second division in 1989, and expanded to three divisions (now named premier, first and second as opposed to first and second) along with a rebrand to the current name of National Conference League in 1993.

Somewhat confusingly, in the late 1990s and 2000s another major amateur competition was also titled conference: the Rugby League Conference (RLC), which operated a summer season as opposed to the traditional winter season retained by the NCL. The move to a summer season by the NCL in 2012 and a reorganisation by the RFL resulted in a merger of the leagues and the creation of a new NCL 3rd division out of the old RLC National Division, which was replaced by the Conference League South in 2013.

National Conference League er en halvprofessionel rugby league-turnering i Storbritannien, der ligger lige under Betfred Championship. Den blev etableret i 2012 som Championship 1 og blev omdøbt til National Conference League i 2016.

Ligaen består af 12 hold, der spiller en hjemme- og udebanekamp mod hinanden i løbet af den regulære sæson. De øverste otte hold går videre til slutspillet, hvor det vindende hold bliver kronet til mestre og får oprykning til Betfred Championship.

National Conference League er et vigtigt led i rugby league-stigen i Storbritannien og giver holdene mulighed for at udvikle sig og stræbe efter at nå de højere rækker. Ligaen har fostret en række talentfulde spillere, som er gået videre til at spille på internationalt niveau.

Nogle af de mest bemærkelsesværdige hold i National Conference League omfatter York City Knights, Newcastle Thunder og London Broncos. Ligaen er kendt for sin konkurrenceprægede natur og sin høje kvalitet af rugby.