2020–21 EFL Championship

EFL Championship 2020–21
Season information
Dates	12 September 2020 - 8 May 2021
Winners	Norwich City
Promoted	Norwich City Watford Brentford
Relegated	Wycombe Wanderers Rotherham United Sheffield Wednesday
Season statistics
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,1274
Average	(2.31 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ivan Toney (33 goals)
Biggest home win	Norwich 7–0 Huddersfield (6 April 2021)
Biggest away win	Preston 0–5 Brentford (10 April 2021)
Previous season	Next season
← 2019–20	2021–22 →

The 2020–21 EFL Championship (referred to as the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the 17th season of the Football League Championship under its current title and the 29th season under its current league division format.

Team changes

The following teams have changed division since the 2019–20 season.

To Championship Promoted from League One Coventry City Rotherham United Wycombe Wanderers Relegated from the Premier League Bournemouth Watford Norwich City

From Championship Promoted to the Premier League Leeds United West Bromwich Albion Fulham Relegated to League One Charlton Athletic Wigan Athletic Hull City

Stadiums

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Barnsley	Barnsley	Oakwell	23,287
Birmingham City	Birmingham	St Andrew's	29,409
Blackburn Rovers	Blackburn	Ewood Park	31,367
Bournemouth	Bournemouth	Dean Court	11,364
Brentford	Hounslow	Brentford Community Stadium	17,250
Bristol City	Bristol	Ashton Gate	27,000
Cardiff City	Cardiff	Cardiff City Stadium	33,316
Coventry City	Birmingham	St Andrew's	29,409
Derby County	Derby	Pride Park Stadium	33,600
Huddersfield Town	Huddersfield	Kirklees Stadium	24,500
Luton Town	Luton	Kenilworth Road	10,356
Middlesbrough	Middlesbrough	Riverside Stadium	34,742
Millwall	London (South Bermondsey)	The Den	20,146
Norwich City	Norwich	Carrow Road	27,244
Nottingham Forest	West Bridgford	City Ground	30,445
Preston North End	Preston	Deepdale	23,408
Queens Park Rangers	London (White City)	Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium	18,439
Reading	Reading	Madejski Stadium	24,161
Rotherham United	Rotherham	New York Stadium	12,021
Sheffield Wednesday	Sheffield (Owlerton)	Hillsborough Stadium	34,854
Stoke City	Stoke-on-Trent	bet365 Stadium	30,089
Swansea City	Swansea	Liberty Stadium	21,088
Watford	Watford	Vicarage Road	21,577
Wycombe Wanderers	High Wycombe	Adams Park	9,448

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsor
Bournemouth	Jason Tindall	Steve Cook	Umbro	MSP Capital
Barnsley	Valérien Ismaël	Alex Mowatt	Puma	The Investment Room
Birmingham City	Aitor Karanka	Harlee Dean	Nike	BoyleSports
Blackburn Rovers	Tony Mowbray	Elliott Bennett	Umbro	Recoverite Compression
Brentford	Thomas Frank	Pontus Jansson	Umbro	Utilita
Bristol City	Dean Holden	Tomas Kalas	Hummel	MansionBet
Cardiff City	Neil Harris	Morrison, SeanSean Morrison	Adidas	Tourism Malaysia
Coventry City	Mark Robins	Liam Kelly	Hummel	BoyleSports
Derby County	Wayne Rooney (interim)	Wayne Rooney	Umbro	32Red
Huddersfield Town	Carlos Corberán	Christopher Schindler	Umbro	Various (home) Yorkshire Air Ambulance / The Town Foundation / The Kirkwood (away)
Luton Town	Nathan Jones	Sonny Bradley	Umbro	JB Developments (home) Star Platforms (away) Ryebridge (third)
Middlesbrough	Neil Warnock	Britt Assombalonga	Hummel	32Red
Millwall	Gary Rowett	Alex Pearce	Macron	Huski Chocolate
Norwich City	Daniel Farke	Grant Hanley	Erreà	Dafabet
Nottingham Forest	Chris Hughton	Michael Dawson	Macron	Football Index
Preston North End	Alex Neil	Alan Browne	Nike	32Red
Queens Park Rangers	Mark Warburton	Geoff Cameron	Erreà	Football Index
Reading	Veljko Paunović	Liam Moore	Macron	Casumo
Rotherham United	Paul Warne	Richard Wood	Puma	Embark Group (home) Mears (away and third)
Sheffield Wednesday	Neil Thompson (caretaker)	Barry Bannan	Elev8	Chansiri
Stoke City	Michael O'Neill	Ryan Shawcross	Macron	bet365
Swansea City	Steve Cooper	Matt Grimes	Joma	Swansea University
Watford	Xisco Muñoz	Deeney, TroyTroy Deeney	Kelme	Sportsbet.io
Wycombe Wanderers	Gareth Ainsworth	Matt Bloomfield	O'Neills	Dreams (home and away) Cherry Red Records (third)

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Birmingham City	Steve Spooner Craig Gardner	End of caretaker spell	22 July 2020	Pre-season	Aitor Karanka	31 July 2020
Huddersfield Town	Danny Schofield				Carlos Corberán	23 July 2020
Watford	Mullins, HaydenHayden Mullins		26 July 2020		Vladimir Ivić	15 August 2020
Bournemouth	Howe, EddieEddie Howe	Mutual consent	1 August 2020		Jason Tindall	8 August 2020
Reading	Mark Bowen		29 August 2020		Veljko Paunović	29 August 2020
Barnsley	Gerhard Struber	Signed by New York Red Bulls	6 October 2020	21st	Valérien Ismaël	23 October 2020
Nottingham Forest	Sabri Lamouchi	Sacked		22nd	Chris Hughton	6 October 2020
Sheffield Wednesday	Garry Monk		9 November 2020	23rd	Tony Pulis	13 November 2020
Derby County	Phillip Cocu	Mutual consent	14 November 2020	24th	Wayne Rooney (interim)	27 November 2020
Watford	Vladimir Ivić	Sacked	19 December 2020	5th	Xisco Muñoz	20 December 2020
Sheffield Wednesday	Tony Pulis		28 December 2020	23rd	Neil Thompson (caretaker)	28 December 2020
Cardiff City	Neil Harris		21 January 2021	15th	Mick McCarthy	22 January 2021
Bournemouth	Jason Tindall		3 February 2021	6th	Jonathan Woodgate	21 February 2021
Bristol City	Dean Holden		16 February 2021	13th	Nigel Pearson	22 February 2021
Birmingham City	Aitor Karanka	Resigned	16 March 2021	21st	Lee Bowyer	16 March 2021
Preston North End	Alex Neil	Sacked	21 March 2021	16th	Frankie McAvoy	10 May 2021

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Norwich City  (C) (P)	46	29	10	7	75	36	+39	97	Promotion to the Premier League
2	Watford  (P)	46	27	10	9	63	30	+33	91
3	Brentford  (P) (O)	46	24	15	7	79	42	+37	87	Qualification to the Championship Play-offs
4	Swansea City	46	23	11	12	56	39	+17	80
5	Barnsley	46	23	9	14	58	50	+8	78
6	Bournemouth	46	22	11	13	73	46	+27	77
7	Reading	46	19	13	14	60	52	+8	70
8	Cardiff City	46	18	14	14	66	49	+17	68
9	Queens Park Rangers	46	19	11	16	57	55	+2	68
10	Middlesbrough	46	18	10	18	55	53	+2	64
11	Millwall	46	15	18	13	47	47	0	63
12	Luton Town	46	17	11	18	41	52	−11	62
13	Preston North End	46	18	7	21	49	56	−7	61
14	Stoke City	46	15	15	16	50	52	−2	60
15	Blackburn Rovers	46	15	12	19	65	54	+11	57
16	Coventry City	45	13	13	19	43	60	−17	52
17	Nottingham Forest	46	12	16	18	37	45	−8	52
18	Birmingham City	46	13	13	20	37	61	−24	52
19	Bristol City	46	15	6	25	46	68	−22	51
20	Huddersfield Town	46	12	13	21	50	71	−21	49
21	Derby County	46	11	11	24	36	58	−22	44
22	Wycombe Wanderers  (R)	46	11	10	25	39	69	−30	43	Relegation to League One
23	Rotherham United  (R)	46	11	9	26	44	60	−16	42
24	Sheffield Wednesday  (R)	46	12	11	23	40	61	−21	41

Source: EFL.com
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

a. Sheffield Wednesday will receive a 12 point deduction for breaching the League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules, this was later reduced to 6 points by an Independent League Arbitration panel

Play-offs

		Semi-finals				Final
	6	Bournemouth	1 1 (2)
	3	Brentford	0 3 (3)
						3	Brentford	2
						4	Swansea City	0
	5	Barnsley	0 1 (1)
	4	Swansea City	1 1 (2)

First leg

17 May 2021 18:00 BST	Bournemouth	1–0	Brentford	Dean Court, Kings Park, Boscombe Attendance: 2,000 Referee: Tim Robinson
	Danjuma  55'	Report

17 May 2021 20:15 BST	Barnsley	0–1	Swansea City	Oakwell, Barnsley Attendance: 4,000 Referee: Geoff Eltringham
		Report	Ayew  39'

Second leg

22 May 2021 12:30 BST	Brentford	3–1	Bournemouth	Brentford Community Stadium, Brentford Attendance: 4,000 Referee: Jarred Gillett
	Toney  15' (pen.) Janelt  50' Forss  81'

Brentford won 3–2 on aggregate.

22 May 2021 17:30 BST	Swansea City	1–1	Barnsley	Liberty Stadium, Swansea Attendance: 3,000 Referee: John Brooks
	Grimes  39'	Report	Woodrow  71'

Swansea City won 2–1 on aggregate.

Championship final

Main article: 2021 EFL Championship play-off Final

29 May 2021 15:00 BST	Brentford	2–0	Swansea City	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 11,689 Referee: Chris Kavanagh
	Toney  10' (pen.) Marcondes  20'	BBC Report	Fulton  65'

External links

• Website