Football League Championship

Region: England
Teams: 24
Founded: 2004
Current Champions: Wolverhampton Wanderers

The Football League Championship, better known as the Championship, is the richest ‘second-stringer’ football league in the world and although it doesn’t rival the Premier League in popularity or prowess, it is the breeding ground for the ‘big time’, with the top three performing teams promoted to the Premiership each season.

Contested from August to the following May each year, the Championship is the highest division of the Football League in the UK and is closely followed by Leagues One and Two.

What’s at stake

Twenty four teams battle it out for the honour, the Championship trophy and the opportunity to go head-to-head with the real giants of English soccer, the elite Premier League.

Each of the teams play each other on two occasions – at home and away – resulting in a total of 46 games for the season and the team with the most points at the end of the day claims the silverware, the original prize of the now defunct First Division Champions, the precursor of the PL.

As usual, in football, three points are awarded for a win and a single point for a draw and then it’s down to goal difference, goals scored and finally alphabetical order that will act as the tiebreaker should two or more teams finish with exactly the same points tally. However if relegation, promotion or place play-offs are at stake, the teams will go toe-to-toe in a play-off game.

Promotion and Relegation

At the end of each season teams are relegated and promoted as follows:

  • The top two teams, according to points, are promoted to the Premier League
  • The three teams that have performed the poorest are relegated to Football League One
  • The teams that have finished in the 3rd – 6th positions on the table play in the Football League Championship play-offs, a simple knock-out competition with the winner going through to the PL.
  • The third placed squad takes on the team that finished in the 6th position and the 4th and 5th placed teams take each other on in two-legged (home and away) semi-finals. Winners play each other for the Championship Playoff Trophy and entry into the Premier League
  • These teams are replaced by the bottom three on the Premier League table