"Coca-Cola Championship" redirects here. For the South African golf tournament, see Coca-Cola Charity Championship

The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship reasons)[1] is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the English football league system, after the Premier League.

Each year, the top finishing teams in the Championship are promoted to the Premier League, and the lowest finishing teams are relegated to League One.

The Football League Championship, which was introduced for the 2004–05 season, was previously known as the Football League First Division (1992–2004), and before that was known as Division Two (1892–1992). The winners of the Championship receive the Football League Championship trophy, the same trophy as the old First Division champions were handed prior to the Premier League's inception in 1992.

The Championship is the wealthiest non-top flight football division in the world and the seventh richest division in Europe.[2] With an average match attendance for the 2016–17 season of 20,130 the Championship ranked second after the German 2. Bundesliga as the most-watched secondary league in the world.

Barnsley have spent more seasons at the second level of English football than any other team and on 3 January 2011 became the first club to achieve 1,000 wins in the second level of English football with a 2–1 home victory over Coventry City. Barnsley are also the first club to play 3,000 games in second-level league football (W1028, D747, L1224).[3] At present, Ipswich Town hold the longest tenure in the Championship, last being out of the division in the 2001–02 season when they were relegated from the Premier League.[4]

History [ edit ]

For history before 2004, see Football League First Division after 1993 and Football League Second Division before that year

In its inaugural season of 2004–05, the Football League Championship announced a total attendance (including postseason) of 9.8 million, which it said was the fourth highest total attendance for a European football division, behind the FA Premier League (12.88m), Spain's La Liga (11.57m) and Germany's Bundesliga (10.92m), but beating Italy's Serie A (9.77m) and France's Ligue 1 (8.17m).[5][6][7] The total figures were aided somewhat by the presence of 24 clubs, compared to 20 clubs in both Serie A and Ligue 1, and 18 in the Bundesliga. A major factor to the competition's success comes from television revenue.[citation needed]

Sunderland won the league in the first season since re-branding, with Wigan Athletic finishing second to win promotion to the top flight of English football for the first time in their history. They had only been elected to the Football League twenty-seven years previously; playing in the fourth tier as recently as eleven years prior to their promotion. West Ham United won the first Championship play-off final that season, following a 1–0 victory over Preston North End at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. In the 2005–06 season, Reading broke the Football League points record for a season, finishing on 106 points, exceeding the record set by Sunderland in 1999.[8]

Sunderland won their second Championship title in three seasons in the 2006–07 season. On 4 May 2007, Leeds United became the first side since the re-branding of the division to enter administration; they were deducted ten points and were relegated as a result.[9][10] On 28 May 2007, Derby County won the first Championship play-off final at the new Wembley Stadium, beating West Bromwich Albion 1–0 in front of nearly 75,000 spectators.[11] West Brom would go on to win the Championship in the following season.

On 30 September 2009, Coca-Cola announced they would end their sponsorship deal with The Football League (now English Football League) at the end of the 2009–10 season.[12] On 16 March 2010, npower were announced as the new title sponsors of the Football League, and from the start of the 2010–11 Football League season until the end of the 2012–13 season, the Football League Championship was known as the Npower Championship.[13]

On 18 July 2013, UK bookmaker Sky Bet announced that they signed a five-year agreement to sponsor the league.[1]

On 24 May 2014, the Championship play-off final between Derby County and Queens Park Rangers saw the highest crowd for any Championship fixture - 87,348 witnessed a Bobby Zamora stoppage time winner for QPR to win promotion for the London club.[14]

For the 2016–17 season, the Football League was re-branded as the English Football League. That season, Rotherham United recorded the lowest points total in Championship history - winning just 23 points from their 46 matches. The league had an cumulative attendance of more than eleven million - excluding play-off matches - with more than two million watching Newcastle United and Aston Villa home fixtures alone; both of whom had been relegated from the Premier League in the previous season. This was included in the highest crowds for the second to fourth tier in England since the 1958–59 season.[15]

Structure of the league [ edit ]

The league comprises 24 teams. Over the course of a season, which runs annually from August to the following May, each team plays twice against the others in the league, once at 'home' and once 'away', resulting in each team competing in 46 games in total. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. The teams are ranked in the league table by points gained, then goal difference, then goals scored and then their head-to-head record for that season. In the event that two or more teams finish the season equal in all these respects, teams are separated by alphabetical order, unless a promotion, relegation or play-off place (see below) is at stake, when the teams are separated by a play-off game, though this improbable situation has never arisen in all the years the rule has existed.[16]

At the end of the season, the top two teams and the winner of the Championship play-offs are promoted to the Premier League and the bottom three teams are relegated to Football League One. The Football League Championship play-offs is a knock-out competition for the teams finishing the season in third to sixth place with the winner being promoted to the Premier League. In the play-offs, the third-placed team plays against the sixth-placed team and the fourth-placed team plays against the fifth-placed team in two-legged semi-finals (home and away). The winners of each semi-final then compete in a single match at Wembley stadium with the prize being promotion to the Premier League and the Championship play-off trophy.

Broadcasting rights [ edit ]

UK television [ edit ]

From 2009 to 2012, Sky Sports had the rights to broadcast 65 live matches. Now, not all the games in the Championship are seen live on Sky Sports, but live coverage of both legs of both play-off semi finals and the play-off final are shown live. Highlights are shown on Quest.

UK radio [ edit ]

talkSPORT hold exclusive national rights to broadcast audio commentary of a selection of Championship matches live to the whole of the United Kingdom; most headline matches are broadcast on either talkSPORT or talkSPORT2. However, BBC Sport does have the rights to broadcast audio commentary for BBC Local Radio in an area with a Championship team.

Current members [ edit ]

The following 24 clubs are competing in the EFL Championship during the 2018–19 season.

Results [ edit ]

League champions, runners-up and play-off finalists [ edit ]

1 When Norwich City gained promotion to the Premier League they were the first team to be relegated to, relegated from, promoted to and promoted from the Championship.

2 When Burnley were promoted in second place with 93 points, they had set a record for the most points for a second-placed team. This record was subsequently matched by Brighton & Hove Albion in the 2016–17 season when they finished second with 93 points.

For past winners at this level before 2004, see List of winners of English Football League Championship and predecessors

Relegated teams (from Championship to League One) [ edit ]

Relegated teams (from Premier League to Championship) [ edit ]

Promoted teams (from League One to Championship) [ edit ]

Top scorers [ edit ]

See also [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Media related to EFL Championship at Wikimedia Commons