EFL Championship

EFL Championship
Country	England Wales
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	2004–present 1992–2004 (as Division One) 1892–1992 (as Division Two)
Number of teams	24
Promotion to	Premier League
Relegation to	EFL League One
Levels on pyramid	2
Domestic cup(s)	FA Cup, Football League Cup
Current champions	Leeds United (2019–20)
Most successful club	Newcastle United, Reading, Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers (2 titles)
TV	Sky Sports Quest (highlights only)
Website	Official website
2020-21

The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the highest division of the English Football League 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. With an average match attendance for the 2014–15 season of 17,857, the Championship ranked slightly ahead of the German 2. Bundesliga as the most-watched secondary league in the world.

In the 2015–16 season, Burnley were the division champions, Middlesbrough were the runners up, and Hull City were promoted via the play-offs. 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.

Clubs participating in the 2019–20 season

The following 24 clubs competed in the EFL Championship during the 2019–20 season.

Club	Finishing position last season	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Barnsley	&0000000000000024.0000002nd in League One (promoted)	Barnsley	Oakwell	23,287
Birmingham City	&0000000000000017.00000017th	Bordesley	St Andrew's	30,016
Blackburn Rovers	&0000000000000015.00000015th	Blackburn	Ewood Park	31,367
Brentford	&0000000000000011.00000011th	London (Brentford)	Griffin Park	12,763
Bristol City	&0000000000000008.0000008th	Bristol	Ashton Gate	27,000
Cardiff City	&0000000000000001.000000 18th in Premier League (relegated)	Cardiff	Cardiff City Stadium	33,316
Charlton Athletic	&0000000000000024.0000003rd in League One (promoted via play-offs)	London (Charlton)	The Valley	27,111
Derby County	&0000000000000006.0000006th	Derby	Pride Park Stadium	33,597
Fulham	&0000000000000002.000000 19th in Premier League (relegated)	London (Fulham)	Craven Cottage	19,000
Huddersfield Town	&0000000000000003.000000 20th in Premier League (relegated)	Huddersfield	Kirklees Stadium	24,121
Hull City	&0000000000000013.00000013th	Kingston upon Hull	KCOM Stadium	25,404
Leeds United	&0000000000000004.0000003rd	Leeds	Elland Road	37,900
Luton Town	&0000000000000024.0000001st in League One (promoted)	Luton	Kenilworth Road	10,356
Middlesbrough	&0000000000000007.0000007th	Middlesbrough	Riverside Stadium	34,742
Millwall	&0000000000000021.00000021st	London (South Bermondsey)	The Den	20,146
Nottingham Forest	&0000000000000009.0000009th	Nottingham	City Ground	30,576
Preston North End	&0000000000000014.00000014th	Preston	Deepdale	23,408
Queens Park Rangers	&0000000000000019.00000019th	London (Shepherd's Bush)	Loftus Road	18,360
Reading	&0000000000000020.00000020th	Reading	Madejski Stadium	24,200
Sheffield Wednesday	&0000000000000012.00000012th	Sheffield	Hillsborough	39,732
Stoke City	&0000000000000016.00000016th	Stoke-on-Trent	bet365 Stadium	30,089
Swansea City	&0000000000000010.00000010th	Swansea	Liberty Stadium	21,088
West Bromwich Albion	&0000000000000005.0000004th	West Bromwich	The Hawthorns	26,850
Wigan Athletic	&0000000000000018.00000018th	Wigan	DW Stadium	25,133

Results

League champions, runners-up and play-off finalists

Season	Champions	Runner-up	Play-off winner	score	Play-off runner-up
2004–05	Sunderland 94	Wigan Athletic 87	West Ham United 73 (6th)	1-0	Preston North End 75 (5th)
2005–06	Reading 106	Sheffield United 90	Watford 81 (3rd)	3-0	Leeds United 78 (5th)
2006–07	Sunderland 88	Birmingham City 86	Derby County 84 (3rd)	1-0	West Bromwich Albion 76 (4th)
2007–08	West Bromwich Albion 81	Stoke City 79	Hull City 75 (3rd)	1-0	Bristol City 74 (4th)
2008–09	Wolverhampton Wanderers 90	Birmingham City 83	Burnley 76 (5th)	1-0	Sheffield United 80 (3rd)
2009–10	Newcastle United 102	West Bromwich Albion 91	Blackpool 70 (6th)	3-2	Cardiff City 76 (4th)
2010–11	Queens Park Rangers 88	Norwich City1 84	Swansea City 80 (3rd)	4-2	Reading 77 (5th)
2011–12	Reading 89	Southampton 88	West Ham United 86 (3rd)	2-1	Blackpool 75 (5th)
2012–13	Cardiff City 87	Hull City 79	Crystal Palace 72 (5th)	1-0 (a.e.t)	Watford 72 (5th)
2013–14	Leicester City 102	Burnley2 93	Queens Park Rangers 80 (4th)	1-0	Derby County 85 (3rd)
2014–15	Bournemouth 90	Watford 89	Norwich City 86 (3rd)	2-0	Middlesbrough 85 (4th)
2015–16	Burnley 93	Middlesbrough 89	Hull City 83 (4th)	1-0	Sheffield Wednesday 74 (6th)
2016–17	Newcastle United 94	Brighton & Hove Albion 93	Huddersfield Town 81 (5th)	0–0 (4–3 pen)	Reading 85 (3rd)
2017–18	Wolverhampton Wanderers 99	Cardiff City 90	Fulham 88 (3rd)	1–0	Aston Villa 83 (4th)
2018–19	Norwich City 94	Sheffield United 89	Aston Villa 76 (5th)	2–1	Derby County 74 (6th)

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 they gained the most points for a second placed team.

Relegated teams (from Championship to League One)

Season	Clubs
2004–05	Gillingham (50), Nottingham Forest (44), Rotherham United (29)
2005–06	Crewe Alexandra (42), Millwall (40), Brighton & Hove Albion (38)
2006–07	Southend United (42), Luton Town (40), Leeds United (36)
2007–08	Leicester City (52), Scunthorpe United (46), Colchester United (38)
2008–09	Norwich City (46), Southampton (45), Charlton Athletic (39)
2009–10	Sheffield Wednesday (47), Plymouth Argyle (41), Peterborough United (34)
2010–11	Preston North End (42), Sheffield United (42), Scunthorpe United (42)
2011–12	Portsmouth (40), Coventry City (40), Doncaster Rovers (36)
2012–13	Peterborough United (54), Wolverhampton Wanderers (51), Bristol City (41)
2013–14	Doncaster Rovers (44), Barnsley (39), Yeovil Town (37)
2014–15	Millwall (41), Wigan Athletic (39), Blackpool (26)
2015–16	Charlton Athletic (40), Milton Keynes Dons (39), Bolton Wanderers (30)

Relegated teams (from Premier League to Championship)

Season	Clubs
2004–05	Crystal Palace (33), Norwich City (33), Southampton (32)
2005–06	Birmingham City (34), West Bromwich Albion (30), Sunderland (15)
2006–07	Sheffield United (38), Charlton Athletic (34), Watford (29)
2007–08	Reading (36), Birmingham City (35), Derby County (11)
2008–09	Newcastle United (34), Middlesbrough (32), West Bromwich Albion (32)
2009–10	Burnley (30), Hull City (30), Portsmouth (19)
2010–11	Blackpool (39), Birmingham City (39), West Ham United (33)
2011–12	Bolton Wanderers (36), Blackburn Rovers (31), Wolverhampton Wanderers (25)
2012–13	Wigan Athletic (36), Reading (28), Queens Park Rangers (25)
2013–14	Norwich City (33), Fulham (32), Cardiff City (30)
2014–15	Hull City (35), Burnley (33), Queens Park Rangers (30)
2015–16	Newcastle United (37), Norwich City (34), Aston Villa (17)

Promoted teams (from League One to Championship)

Season	Clubs
2004–05	Luton Town (98), Hull City (86), Sheffield Wednesday (Play-off winners) (72)
2005–06	Southend United (82), Colchester United (79), Barnsley (Play-off winners) (72)
2006–07	Scunthorpe United (91), Bristol City (85), Blackpool (Play-off winners) (83)
2007–08	Swansea City (91), Nottingham Forest (82), Doncaster Rovers (Play-off winners) (80)
2008–09	Leicester City (96), Peterborough United (89), Scunthorpe United (Play-off winners) (76)
2009–10	Norwich City (95), Leeds United (86), Millwall (Play-off winners) (85)
2010–11	Brighton & Hove Albion (95), Southampton (92), Peterborough United (Play-off winners) (79)
2011–12	Charlton Athletic (101), Sheffield Wednesday (93), Huddersfield Town (Play-off winners) (81)
2012–13	Doncaster Rovers (84), Bournemouth (83), Yeovil Town (Play-off winners) (77)
2013–14	Wolverhampton Wanderers (103), Brentford (94), Rotherham United (Play-off winners) (86)
2014–15	Bristol City (99), Milton Keynes Dons (91), Preston North End (Play-off winners) (89)
2015–16	Wigan Athletic (87), Burton Albion (85), Barnsley (Play-off winners) (74)

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	Plymouth Argyle Wolverhampton Wanderers	23
2008–09	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake	Wolverhampton Wanderers	25
2009–10	Peter Whittingham	Cardiff City	20
	Nicky Maynard	Bristol City
2010–11	Danny Graham	Watford	24
2011–12	Rickie Lambert	Southampton	27
2012–13	Glenn Murray	Crystal Palace	30
2013–14	Ross McCormack	Leeds United	28
2014–15	Daryl Murphy	Ipswich Town	27
2015–16	Andre Gray	Burnley	25
2016–17	Dwight Gayle	Newcastle United	11
2017–18	Matěj Vydra	Derby County	21
2018–19	Teemu Pukki	Norwich City	29

External links

• Championship official site Football League
• Championship Fan site The Championship Fan Site
• Championship Stadia The Championship Stadia