Football League Championship

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Football League Championship

Countries England
Wales

Founded 2004
1992–2004 (as Division One)

1892–1992 (as Division Two)

Number of teams 24

Promotion to Premier League

Relegation to League One

Levels on pyramid Level 2

Domestic cup(s) FA Cup

League Cup

Current champions Wolverhampton Wanderers (2008–09)

Website Official

2009–10 Football League Championship

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 2004–05 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]

The winners of the Coca Cola Championship receive the Football League Championship
trophy which is the same trophy as the old First Division Champions (now the Premier
League) were handed prior to the Premier League's inception in the 1992/1993 season.

The current champions are Wolverhampton Wanderers, who won promotion to the
Premier League on 19 April 2009, and were crowned champions the following weekend.
The team were presented with the trophy on 3 May 2009, in front of a sell-out Molineux
crowd. The last time the club had received The Championship trophy was back in 1959,
the last time they had won the top-flight of English football.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 History
• 2 Structure of the league
• 3 Football League Championship clubs 2009–10
• 4 Broadcasting rights
• 5 History of the current 24 clubs in the Championship (2009-10 season)
• 6 Previous seasons
o 6.1 League champions, Runners-up & play-Off winners
o 6.2 Play-off results
o 6.3 Relegated teams (from the Championship)
o 6.4 Relegated teams (from the Premier League)
o 6.5 Promoted teams (to the Championship)
• 7 Top scorers
• 8 Championship Stadia 2009-10
• 9 See also
• 10 References

• 11 External links

[edit] 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.

[edit] Structure of the league

The league comprises 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 semifinals. 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 League One and the winner of the League One
playoff final.

[edit] Football League Championship clubs 2009–10

The following 24 clubs will compete in the Championship during the 2009–10 season.

Club Finishing position last season

Barnsley 20th

Blackpool 16th
Bristol City 10th

Cardiff City 7th

Coventry City 17th

Crystal Palace 15th

Derby County 18th

Doncaster Rovers 14th

Ipswich Town 9th

Leicester City 1st in League One

Middlesbrough 19th in the Premier League

Newcastle United 18th in the Premier League

Nottingham Forest 19th

Peterborough United 2nd in League One

Plymouth Argyle 21st

Preston North End 6th

Queens Park Rangers 11th

Reading 4th

Scunthorpe United 6th in League One (play-off winner)

Sheffield United 3rd

Sheffield Wednesday 12th

Swansea City 8th

Watford 13th

West Bromwich Albion 20th in the Premier League

[edit] Broadcasting rights

From 2009-2012 Sky Sports will show 65 live matches while the BBC will show 10 live
games a season as well as the 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.

Local radio stations with a local football team in The Championship usually offer audio
coverage of every live game. BBC Sport holds exclusive national rights to broadcast
Championship matches live to the whole of the United Kingdom; most matches are
broadcast on local BBC radio stations for the area of their respective teams while some
headline matches are broadcast on national stations, either BBC Radio Five Live or BBC
Radio Five Live Sports Extra under their Five Live Sport banner. Most matches broadcast
on BBC radio are also broadcast online to UK users on the BBC website.

In Australia, Fox Sports broadcasts live Coca Cola Championship matches every
weekend, as well as a Highlights show every Tuesday night at 7 pm.
In Italy, Sportitalia has exclusive rights to broadcast live one match a week and highlights
show.

[edit] History of the current 24 clubs in the

Championship (2009-10 season)
The following table provides information on the 24 clubs currently in the Football
League Championship.

Table codes (click individual codes to view season tables):

C = Champions, R-up = League runner-up, p.w. = Play-off Winner, R = Relegated from
League.

Finishi
Total
ng Promot Promot
Memb Consecuti seaso Spells Relegat Relegat
Club positio ed ed
er ve ns ed ed
names n
since in
from to
seasons in leagu to from
(space) 2008- League League
season in league leagu e* league* league*
09 * *
e*
season

2006-
Barnsley T20th 4 4/6 1 0 0 0 1 (p.w)
07
2007-
Blackpool P16th 3 3/6 1 0 0 0 1 (p.w)
08
2007-
Bristol City J10th 3 3/6 1 0 0 0 1 (R-up)
08
Cardiff 2003-
G7th 7 6/6 1 0 0 0 0
City1 04
Coventry 2001-
Q17th 9 6/6 1 0 0 0 0
City 02
Crystal 2005-
O15th 5 5/6 1 1(R) 0 0 0
Palace 06
Derby 2008-
R18th 2 5/6 2 1(R) 1 (p.w) 0 0
County 09
Doncaster 2008-
N14th 2 2/6 1 0 0 0 1 (p.w)
Rovers 09
Ipswich 2002-
I9th 8 6/6 1 0 0 0 0
Town 03
V1st in
Leicester 2009-
League 1 5/6 2 0 0 1(R) 1 (C)
City 10
One
 B19th
Middlesbro in the 2009-
1 1/6 1 1(R) 0 0 0
ugh Premier 10
League
A18th
Newcastle in the 2009-
1 1/6 1 1(R) 0 0 0
United Premier 10
League
Nottingham 2008-
S19th 2 3/6 2 0 0 1(R) 1 (R-up)
Forest 09
W2nd
Peterboroug in 2009-
1 1/6 1 0 0 0 1 (R-up)
h United League 10
One
Plymouth 2004-
U21st 6 6/6 1 0 0 0 0
Argyle 05
Preston 2000-
F6th 10 6/6 1 0 0 0 0
North End 01
Queens
2004-
Park K11th 6 6/6 1 0 0 0 0
05
Rangers
2008-
Reading E4th 2 4/6 2 1(R) 1 (C) 0 0
09
X6th in
Scunthorpe 2009- 2 (C)
League 1 2/6 2 0 0 1(R)
United 10 (p.w)
One
Sheffield 2007-
D3rd 3 5/6 2 1(R) 1 (R-up) 0 0
United 08
Sheffield 2005-
L12th 5 5/6 1 0 0 0 1 (p.w)
Wednesday 06
Swansea 2008-
H8th 2 2/6 1 0 0 0 1 (C)
City1 09
2007-
Watford M13th 3 5/6 2 1(R) 1 (p.w) 0 0
08
C20th
West
in the 2009-
Bromwich 1 3/6 2 2(R)(R) 1(C) 0 0
Premier 10
Albion
League

Notes
1.Current spell of a club in the league may predate the creation of the championship.
2.Consecutive seasons in league total includes the clubs current spell only.
3.Total seasons in league/spells in league/relegation to/relegation from & promotion to
and promotion from figures include "championship era" only. (last six seasons)
1
Club is located in Wales
[edit] Previous seasons
[edit] League champions, Runners-up & play-Off winners

See also: List of winners of English Football League Championship and predecessors

Promoted Play-Off
Season League champions points Runner-Up points
Winner

2004–
Sunderland 94 Wigan Athletic 87 West Ham United
05

2005–
Reading 106 Sheffield United 90 Watford
06

2006– Birmingham
Sunderland 88 86 Derby County
07 City

2007–
West Bromwich Albion 81 Stoke City 79 Hull City
08

2008– Wolverhampton Birmingham

90 83 Burnley
09 Wanderers City

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

[edit] Play-off results

Main article: Football League Championship play-offs

Season Semifinal (1st Leg) Semifinal (2nd Leg) Final

Derby County 0-0 Preston West Ham United 1-

2004- Preston North End 2-0 Derby North End 0 Preston North End
05 County
Ipswich Town 0-2 West Ham
West Ham United 2-2 United
 Ipswich Town
Leeds United 1-1 Preston Preston North End 0-2 Leeds
2005- North End United Leeds United 0-3
06 Watford
Crystal Palace 0-3 Watford Watford 0-0 Crystal Palace

Southampton 1-2 Derby Derby County 2-3

Southampton Derby County 1-0
2006- County
(Derby won 4-3 on penalties, AET) West Bromwich
07 Wolverhampton Wanderers West Bromwich Albion 1-0
Albion
2-3 West Bromwich Albion Wolverhampton Wanderers

Crystal Palace 1-2 Bristol Bristol City 2-1 Crystal

2007- Bristol City 0-1 Hull
City Palace AET
08 City
Watford 0-2 Hull City Hull City 4-1 Watford
Preston North End 1-1 Sheffield United 1-0 Preston
2008- Sheffield United 0-1
Sheffield United North End
09 Burnley
Burnley 1-0 Reading Reading 0-2 Burnley

[edit] Relegated teams (from the Championship)

Season Clubs

2004-
Gillingham, Nottingham Forest, Rotherham United
05

2005-
Crewe Alexandra, Millwall, Brighton & Hove Albion
06

2006-
Southend United, Luton Town, Leeds United
07

2007-
Leicester City, Scunthorpe United, Colchester United
08

2008-
Norwich City, Southampton, Charlton Athletic
09
[edit] Relegated teams (from the Premier League)

Season Clubs

2004-
Southampton, Norwich City, Crystal Palace
05

2005-
Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion, Birmingham City
06

2006-
Watford, Charlton Athletic, Sheffield United
07

2007-
Derby County, Birmingham City, Reading
08

2008-
West Bromwich Albion, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United
09

[edit] Promoted teams (to the Championship)

Season Clubs

2004-
Luton Town, Hull City, Sheffield Wednesday
05

2005-
Southend United, Colchester United, Barnsley
06

2006-
Scunthorpe United, Bristol City, Blackpool
07
2007-
Swansea City, Nottingham Forest, Doncaster Rovers
08

2008-
Leicester City, Peterborough United, Scunthorpe United
09

[edit] Top scorers

Season Top scorer Club Goals

2004-
Nathan Ellington Wigan Athletic 24
05

2005-
Marlon King Watford 21
06

2006-
Jamie Cureton Colchester United 23
07

2007-
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake Plymouth Argyle/Wolverhampton Wanderers 23
08

2008-
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake Wolverhampton Wanderers 25
09

[edit] Championship Stadia 2009-10

Team Stadium Capacity
Newcastle United St James' Park 52,387
Sheffield Wednesday Hillsborough Stadium 39,814
Middlesbrough Riverside Stadium 35,049
Derby County Pride Park Stadium 33,597
Coventry City Ricoh Arena 32,609
Sheffield United Bramall Lane 32,609
Leicester City Walkers Stadium 32,500
Nottingham Forest City Ground 30,602
Ipswich Town Portman Road 30,311
West Bromwich Albion The Hawthorns 28,003
Cardiff City Cardiff City Stadium 26,828
Crystal Palace Selhurst Park 26,309
Preston North End Deepdale 24,500
Reading Madejski Stadium 24,161
Barnsley Oakwell 23,009
Bristol City Ashton Gate 21,497
Swansea City Liberty Stadium 20,532
Watford Vicarage Road 19,920
Plymouth Argyle Home Park 19,500
Queens Park Rangers Loftus Road 19,128
Peterborough United London Road Stadium 15,460*
Doncaster Rovers Keepmoat Stadium 15,231
Blackpool Bloomfield Road 9,788
Scunthorpe United Glanford Park 9,088*

* ground contains some terracing.