The English Premiership will expand to 14 clubs from the 2022/23 season, when relegation will be paused temporarily, officials announced Tuesday. Saracens will rejoin English rugby union's top flight next term, having won the second-tier Championship after being relegated from the Premiership for salary cap breaches after the end of the 2019/20 season. That will increase the number of Premiership clubs for the 2021/22 season from 12 to 13. Now the governing council of England's Rugby Football Union's have voted to add another team for the following two seasons, with a play-off between the Premiership's bottom side and the winners of the Championship deciding which club is either relegated or promoted in 2023/24. The changes have been made as part of the RFU's Covid Recovery Plan, designed to help the game in England bounce back from the effects of the pandemic. jdg/gj