THE Rugby Football League have confirmed that Ottawa Aces will join the likes of Keighley Cougars in next season's Betfred League One after the Canadian team was officially launched on Monday.

Ottawa become the second club from Canada to secure a place in the English league following in the footsteps of now Super League side Toronto Wolfpack.

Canadian Eric Perez, who founded Toronto in 2016 and oversaw their promotion to the Championship before making way for Australian billionaire David Argyle, unveiled the new club at a press conference in Ottawa.

The club, which was spawned through a re-location of former League One side Hemel to the Canadian capital, will play home games at the 24,000-capacity TD Place.

As with Toronto, Perez says the Aces will be full-time from the start and fund all travel and accommodation costs for visiting teams 'until collectively we all feel we don't need to anymore.'

Perez, who is currently interim chairman at Bradford Bulls, also said the club will have a base in the UK and that former Hemel director of rugby Dean Thomas will have an administrative role.

The team are likely to play blocks of home matches, starting towards the end of March - League One begins later than the Championship and Super League - but have yet to appoint a coach and will wait until the June deadline for out-of-contract players to finalise signings.

The Aces will copy the model of Toronto, who achieved their initial five-year target of reaching Super League with two years to spare, while heeding the lessons of the Wolfpack, who have lost all six top-flight matches so far.

"A five-year plan makes a lot of sense for us, if it takes a bit longer so be it." Perez said.

"The number one plan is to get into the Championship and hover around the top of the table until we make it into Super League.

"I'm not looking to rush my way up to Super League. I'm looking to provide the people of Ottawa with a competitive, exciting, fun-to-watch team in a great atmosphere that is capable of beating anyone on any day.

"I want to make sure that, once we get to Super League, we're sustainable and we can stay up there. It's a tough transition to go from Championship to Super League."

Ottawa were initially given the go-ahead to enter the RFL pyramid in the 2020 season and Perez, who is chairman of the new club, says the delay was due to prolonged discussions over central distribution.