EFL Championship

EFL Championship
Full name	Sky Bet Championship
Association	The Football Association
First edition	2004/05
hierarchy	2nd league
Teams	24 teams
master	Leeds United (1st title)
Record champions	Sunderland FC Reading FC Newcastle United Wolverhampton Wanderers (2 wins each)
Current season	2019/20
Website	efl.com
↑ Premier League (I) ↓ EFL League One (III)

The EFL Championship (until 2016 Football League Championship , other names: The Championship or Sky Bet Championship (official sponsor name)) has been the second highest division in English football after the Premier League since the 2004/05 season . It replaced the First Division . It is the top division within the English Football League .

With over 11 million viewers in the 2017/18 season, which was 20,489 viewers per game, the league is one of the most popular football leagues in the world.

structure

In the EFL Championship, 24 teams play in a simple round with a return leg. Every win is rewarded with three points and every draw with one point. At the end of a season, the two highest-ranked clubs in the final table are promoted directly to the Premier League. In addition, a third promoted player is determined who has completed the playing time between third and sixth position and wins two play-off rounds. In the play-offs, the third against the sixth placed and the fourth against the fifth placed in a return game, whereby the weaker team has home rights in the first game. The away goals rule does not apply . The two winners then play the third promoted team in a final at Wembley Stadium (2005 and 2006 because of the new Wembley building in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium ). The three promoted players will be replaced by the three relegated members from the Premier League, who have occupied the last three places in the final table in their league. Similarly, the last three teams in the EFL Championship are relegated to the third division, EFL League One , and are replaced by three promoted teams from this league according to the same principle. The position within the league is determined according to the following criteria: points scored, goal difference , goals scored, mini-table of two or more teams taking into account the aforementioned criteria, play-off game (s).

Teams in the 2019/20 season

Barnsley FC Birmingham City Blackburn Rovers Bournemouth AFC Brentford FC Bristol City Cardiff City Coventry City

Derby County Huddersfield Town Luton Town Middlesbrough FC Millwall FC Norwich City Nottingham Forest Preston North End

Queens Park Rangers Reading FC Rotherham United Sheffield Wednesday Stoke City Swansea City Watford FC Wycombe Wanderers

Winner of the EFL Championship

season	master	Runner-up	Playoff winner	Top scorer
2004/05	Sunderland AFC	Wigan Athletic	West Ham United	Nathan Ellington (Wigan Athletic) (24)
2005/06	Reading FC	Sheffield United	Watford FC	Marlon King (Watford FC) (21)
2006/07	Sunderland AFC	Birmingham City	Derby County	Jamie Cureton (Colchester United) (23)
2007/08	West Bromwich Albion	Stoke City	Hull City	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (Wolverhampton Wanderers) (23)
2008/09	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Birmingham City	Burnley FC	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (Wolverhampton Wanderers) (25)
2009/10	Newcastle United	West Bromwich Albion	Blackpool FC	Nicky Maynard (Bristol City) and Peter Whittingham (Cardiff City) (20)
2010/11	Queens Park Rangers	Norwich City	Swansea City	Danny Graham (Watford FC) (24)
2011/12	Reading FC	Southampton FC	West Ham United	Rickie Lambert (Southampton FC) (27)
2012/13	Cardiff City	Hull City	Crystal Palace	Glenn Murray (Crystal Palace) (30)
2013/14	Leicester City	Burnley	Queens Park Rangers	Ross McCormack (Leeds United) (28)
2014/15	Bournemouth AFC	Watford FC	Norwich City	Daryl Murphy (Ipswich Town) (27)
2015/16	Burnley FC	Middlesbrough FC	Hull City	Andre Gray (Burnley FC and Brentford FC) (25)
2016/17	Newcastle United	Brighton & Hove Albion	Huddersfield Town	Chris Wood (Leeds United) (27)
2017/18	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Cardiff City	Fulham FC	Matěj Vydra (Derby County) (21)
2018/19	Norwich City	Sheffield United	Aston Villa	Teemu Pukki (Norwich City) (29)
2019/20	Leeds United	West Bromwich Albion	Fulham FC	Ollie Watkins (Brentford FC) and Aleksandar Mitrović (Fulham FC) (26)

Relegated to the EFL Championship

This table shows the three relegated teams from the EFL Championship in each season. The number of points achieved is shown in brackets.

season	22nd place	23rd place	24th place
2004/05	Gillingham FC (50)	Nottingham Forest (44)	Rotherham United (29)
2005/06	Crewe Alexandra (42)	Millwall FC (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 FC (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 FC (40)	Coventry City (40)	Doncaster Rovers (36)
2012/13	Peterborough United (54)	Wolverhampton Wanderers (51)	Bristol City (41)
2013/14	Doncaster Rovers (44)	Barnsley FC (39)	Yeovil Town (37)
2014/15	Millwall FC (41)	Wigan Athletic (39)	Blackpool FC (25)
2015/16	Charlton Athletic (40)	Milton Keynes Dons (39)	Bolton Wanderers (30)
2016/17	Blackburn Rovers (51)	Wigan Athletic (42)	Rotherham United (23)
2017/18	Barnsley FC (41)	Burton Albion (41)	Sunderland AFC (37)
2018/19	Rotherham United (40)	Bolton Wanderers (32)	Ipswich Town (31)
2019/20	Charlton Athletic (48)	Wigan Athletic (47)	Hull City (45)

Audience numbers

This table shows the attendance figures for the EFL Championship in each season.

season	Number of spectators	Number of games	Cut per game
2004/05	9,614,170	552	17,417
2005/06	9,719,263	552	17.607
2006/07	10,034,853	552	18,179
2007/08	9,398,767	552	17,027
2008/09	9,874,176	552	17,888
2009/10	9,907,882	552	17,949
2010/11	9,587,436	552	17,369
2011/12	9,791,717	552	17,739
2012/13	9,656,126	552	17,493
2013/14	9,166,004	552	16.605
2014/15	9,839,335	551	17,857
2015/16	9,705,635	552	17,583
2016/17	11,105,922	552	20,119
2017/18	11,309,726	552	20,489
2018/19	11.113.037	552	20,132
2019/20	8,251,897	552	18,585

Web links

• Home Official league page

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Championship 2017/2018 - spectators. Retrieved January 26, 2019 . 
2. ↑ EFL Official Website - Rules & Regulations. Retrieved May 14, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Abortion and evaluation as 0-0 by Blackpool against Huddersfield Town. Retrieved December 23, 2019 .