Football League Championship Facts

  • The Football League Championship is the richest second division football league in the world. It is also the best attended, and ranks amongst the top ten best-attended football leagues on the planet
  • More fans attended Football League Championship fixtures in the 2004-05 season than Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1 – the nation’s top flight football leagues
  • Unlike most other football leagues, alphabetical order is used as a points tiebreaker unless promotion, relegation or a play-off berth are at stake, then a play-off game is the decider.
  • Sky Sports, not the BBC, is the major broadcaster of the Football League Championship until a new deal is negotiated in 2012.
  • No team has won consecutive titles since the Football League First Division was founded in 1892
  • Manchester City, followed by Leicester City, Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland have claimed more titles than any other team in what was initially known as the Football League Second Division (1893-1992), the Football League First Division (1992– 2004) and finally the Football League Championship (2004 - )
  • Nine London Clubs have claimed the Football League Championship title over the years - West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers, Millwall, Fulham, Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Charlton Athletic and Brentford
  • Birmingham City won the first ever Football League Second Division in the inaugural 1892-93 season, beating Sheffield United in the final whereas West Ham United lost out to Newcastle United in the maiden Football League First Division final in 1992.
  • Preston player, Jack Gordon, allegedly scored the first goal of the newly conceived Football League First Division in 1888
  • Reading boasts the most points in a single season with 106 (2005-06), whereas Stoke holds the dubious record of collecting the fewest points in a season, with 17 (1984-85)
  • Joe Payne, centre forward for Luton Town, scored 10 goals against Bristol Rovers on Easter Monday 1936, an all-time English record that still stands today
  • The fastest ever recorded goal in a League fixture was scored in the initial 4 seconds of a game between Bradford and Tranmere by Jim Fryatt in 1964
  • Aston Villa holds the team record for the most goals in season in Division 1 with 128 in 1930-31.