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EFL Championship

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Football League Championship
File:Football League Championship.png
Founded
2004
1992–2004 (as Division One)
1892–1992 (as Division Two)
Nation
 England
 Wales
Promotion To
Premier League
Relegation To
League One
Number of Teams
24
Level on Pyramid
Level 2
Cups
FA Cup
League Cup
Current Champions (2007-08)
West Bromwich Albion
Website
Official

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

The Football League Championship was introduced for the 2004–2005 season, having been previously known as the Football League First Division. According to Deloitte, in the 2004–05 season it was the richest non-top flight football division in the world, and the sixth richest division in Europe.[1]

History

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

In 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 Primera división (11.57m) and Germany's Bundesliga (10.92m), but beating Italy's Serie A (9.77m) and France's Ligue 1 (8.17m).[2][3][4] 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.

Structure of the league

The league is comprised of 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 and then goals scored. 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 playoff game[5].

The two teams finishing the season in the top two positions are promoted to the Premier League and the bottom three teams are relegated to Football League One. In addition, the teams finishing in positions 3-6 compete in the Football League Championship Play-Offs, a knock-out competition with the winner also being promoted to the Premier League. In the playoffs, 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. The winners of each semifinal then compete in a single match with the prize being promotion to the Premier League and the Championship playoff trophy.

The three promoted teams are replaced in the division for the next season by the teams finishing in the bottom three in the Premier League and the relegated teams are replaced by the two teams finishing at the top of Division One and the winner of the Division One playoff final.

Football League Championship clubs 2008–09

The following 23 clubs will compete in the Championship during the 2008–09 season. Leeds United and Doncaster Rovers will take the remaining spot in the League One playoff final.

Club Finishing position last season
Barnsley 18th
Birmingham City 19th in Premier League
Blackpool 19th
Bristol City 4th
Burnley 1st
Cardiff City1 12th
Charlton Athletic 11th
Coventry City 21st
Crystal Palace 5th
Derby County 20th in Premier League
Ipswich Town 8th
Norwich City 17th
Nottingham Forest 2nd in League One
Plymouth Argyle 10th
Preston North End 15th
Queens Park Rangers 14th
Reading 18th Premier League
Sheffield United 9th
Sheffield Wednesday 16th
Southampton 20th
Swansea City1 1st in League One
Watford 6th
Wolverhampton Wanderers 7th

1Club is located in  Wales

Previous seasons

Winners

Season Winner Runner-Up Promoted Play-Off Winner
2004–05 Sunderland Wigan Athletic West Ham United
2005–06 Reading Sheffield United Watford
2006–07 Sunderland Birmingham City Derby County
2007–08 West Bromwich Albion Stoke City Hull City

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

Play-off results

Season Semifinal (1st Leg) Semifinal (2nd Leg) Final
2004-05 Preston North End 2-0 Derby County

West Ham United 2-2 Ipswich Town

Derby County 0-0 Preston North End

Ipswich Town 0-2 West Ham United

West Ham United 1-0 Preston North End
2005-06 Leeds United 1-1 Preston North End

Crystal Palace 0-3 Watford

Preston North End 0-2 Leeds United

Watford 0-0 Crystal Palace

Leeds United 0-3 Watford
2006-07 Southampton 1-2 Derby County
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-3 West Bromwich Albion
Derby County 2-3 Southampton
(Derby won 4-3 on penalties, AET)
West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Derby County 1-0 West Bromwich Albion
2007-08 Crystal Palace 1-2 Bristol City
Watford 0-2 Hull City
Bristol City 2-1 Crystal Palace AET
Hull City 4-1 Watford
Bristol City 0-1 Hull City

Relegated teams

Season Clubs
2004-05 Gillingham, Nottingham Forest, Rotherham United
2005-06 Crewe Alexandra, Millwall, Brighton & Hove Albion
2006-07 Southend United, Luton Town, Leeds United
2007-08 Leicester City, Scunthorpe United, Colchester United

Top scorers

Season Top scorer Club Goals
2004-05 Nathan Ellington Wigan Athletic 24
2005-06 Marlon King Watford 21
2006-07 Jamie Cureton Colchester United 23
2007-08 Sylvan Ebanks-Blake Wolverhampton Wanderers 23

Championship Stadiums 2008-09

Home Club Stadium Name Capacity
Sheffield Wednesday Hillsborough 39,814
Derby County Pride Park Stadium 33,597
Southampton St Mary's Stadium 32,689
Sheffield United Bramall Lane 32,609
Coventry City Ricoh Arena 32,609
Nottingham Forest City Ground 32,602
Ipswich Town Portman Road 30,311
Birmingham City St. Andrew's 30,009
Wolverhampton Wanderers Molineux 28,525
Charlton Athletic The Valley 27,111
Crystal Palace Selhurst Park 26,309
Norwich City Carrow Road 26,034
Hull City KC Stadium 25,404
Reading Madjeski Stadium 24,161
Barnsley Oakwell 23,009
Burnley Turf Moor 22,546
Preston North End Deepdale 22,225
Cardiff City Ninian Park* 22,008
Bristol City Ashton Gate 21,497
Plymouth Argyle Home Park 20,922
Swansea City Liberty Stadium 20,532
Watford Vicarage Road 19,920
Queens Park Rangers Loftus Road 19,148
Blackpool Bloomfield Road 9,612

*This ground contains terracing

*Hull City and Bristol City will play for promotion to premiership on Saturday 24th May

*Leeds United and Doncaster Rovers willplay for promotion to championship on Sunday 25th May

Broadcasting rights

The television rights for the Football League Championship are currently held by Sky Sports. Sky Sports will hold the exclusive rights until the 2009-2010 season. Highlights of Championship matches and goals of league one and league two matches are shown by ITV on The Championship. From 2009-2010 Sky Sports will show 65 live matches. The BBC will show 10 live games a season and has rights to show a highlight show. The deal is on a three year contract and is worth £264m that will mostly be paid by Sky.

References

  1. ^ First fall in Premiership wages, BBC News, 31 May 2006, reporting on Deloitte's review of football finance in 2004-05.
  2. ^ BBC SPORT | Football | Countdown underway to new season
  3. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1712938,00.html
  4. ^ TheFA.com - First class second division
  5. ^ "Coca Cola Championship". Sporting Life. Retrieved 2008-04-02.

See also

Template:Football League Championship teamlistTemplate:English football league system cells

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