The Magners League is an annual rugby union competition involving regional sides from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is one of the three major leagues in Europe, along with the English Guinness Premiership and the French Top 14. The league champion is currently determined solely from league performance, however from the 2009–10 season, it is intended to introduce a play-off structure, similar to the Guinness Premiership.

It was originally known as the Celtic League (Irish: An tSraith Cheilteach) (Welsh: Y Gynghrair Geltaidd) The Magners League season takes place between September and May, with each team playing every other team on a home and away basis. Magners League matches avoid the traditional international weekends in November and during the Six Nations Championship. The Welsh, Irish and Scottish rugby unions now use the Magners League as the sole determinant for European qualification.

Talks have been held intermittently with both Italy and South Africa about the possible expansion of the Magners League. A Rainbow Cup involving South African and Italian teams was announced in 2005, but because of financial issues on the European end of the deal and changes in the leadership of the South African Rugby Union (SARU), the idea was abandoned before a ball was kicked. In late November 2008, the Magners League board met to again discuss the possibility of Italian participation, and agreed to further explore the issue.

On 5 December, the chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union, Roger Lewis, stated that the league was looking "favourably" on Italian participation. This was in advance of a 19 December board meeting of the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) to discuss the poor showing of their national team in the end-of-year Test series and proposals to improve the standard of Italian rugby. After the meeting, FIR announced that it would submit a proposal to join the Magners League.

FIR indicated that it had two possibilities on the table — either entering four existing Italian clubs from the Super 10 into the league; or creating two teams, comprised solely of Italy-qualified players, exclusively for the competition.

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