the Vichy regime in the south seized assets belonging to rugby league authorities and clubs and banned the sport for its association with the left-wing Popular Front government that had governed France before the war. The sport was unbanned after the Liberation of Paris in August 1944 and the collapse of the Vichy regime, although it was still actively marginalised by the French authorities until the 1990s. Despite this, the national side appeared in the finals of the 1954 and 1968 World Cups, and the country hosted the 1954 event. In 1996, a French team, Paris Saint-Germain was one of eleven teams which formed the new Super League, although the club was dissolved in 1997. In 2006, the Super League admitted the Catalans Dragons, a team from Perpignan in the southern Languedoc-Roussillon region. They have subsequently reached the 2007 Challenge Cup Final and made the playoffs of the 2008 Super League XIII season. The success of the Dragons in Super League has initiated a renaissance in French rugby league, with new-found enthusiasm for the sport in the south of the country where most of the Elite One Championship teams are based. In other parts of Europe, the game is played at semi-professional and amateur level. North America From 2017 to 2020, the Toronto Wolfpack were North America's only active professional Rugby League team, competing in the English Rugby League system. They won the 2017 Kingstone Press League 1 in their inaugural season and earned promotion to the 2018 Rugby League Championship. In 2019 The Wolfpack won promotion to the Super League, lasting only a few months before having to withdraw due to the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Toronto play their home games at Lamport Stadium in downtown Toronto. Beginning in 2022, the Ottawa Aces will join the English league pyramid, becoming the only Canadian team in the system after the Wolfpack were denied re-entry. The Aces will play out of TD Place Stadium. Starting in 2021, the North American Rugby League will be North America's professional championship, with Canadian club Toronto Wolfpack joining several USA Rugby League clubs, New York Freedom and Cleveland Rugby League to form the league's inaugural season. Several brand new clubs from Western USA will join up in 2022. The new competition is sanctioned by Canada Rugby League, but not yet by the United States governing body. Other countries The early 21st century has seen other