YORK City Knights will not know until July how many promotion places are up for grabs from National League Two.

It was confirmed at yesterday's Northern Rail Cup launch that no final decision had been taken on how many teams would be promoted to National One.

The play-off system in NL2 is also, therefore, not yet known.

In previous years, the top team in NL2 were promoted with a second team going up via the six-team play-offs. Two teams were relegated from NL1.

However, a decision cannot be taken on the shape of next season's NL1 and NL2 until it is known which clubs have won franchises to join Super League, and that won't be revealed until July.

The Rugby Football League are expected to increase Super League from 12 to 14 teams, and six clubs currently outside the top tier - Salford, Widnes, Featherstone, Celtic Crusaders, Leigh and Toulouse - are believed to have applied for franchises.

At present, Salford and Celtic are the favourites to get such a licence, with no team relegated from Super League. If so, there will be two extra places to fill in NL1, which may mean up to four promotion places in NL2, or a decrease in the number of clubs demoted.

If French outfit Toulouse are granted a place, then there would still be one additional hole to fill in NL1.

Meanwhile, National League competitions will retain the points-scoring system brought in last season - three points for a win, two for a draw and one for a loss by 12 or fewer points.