The Football League Championship is the second-highest division 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.
The Football League Championship, which was introduced for the 2004–05 season, was previously
known as the Football League First Division, and before that was known as Division Two.
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. The
average match attendance for the 2011–12 season was 17,738, which also makes it the
most-watched secondary league in The World. In the 2013–14 season, Leicester City were
the division champions, Burnley were the runners up. 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.
History For history before 2004, see Football League
First Division after 1993 and Football League Second Division before that year
In its inaugural season of 2004–05, the Football League Championship announced a total
attendance of 9.8 million, which it said was the fourth highest total attendance for
a European football division, behind the FA Premier League, Spain's La Liga and Germany's
Bundesliga, but beating Italy's Serie A and France's Ligue 1. 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. On 30 September 2009, Coca-Cola announced
they would end their sponsorship deal with the Football League at the end of the 2009–10
season. On 16 March 2010, npower were announced as the new title sponsors of the Football
League, and from the start of the 2010–11 Football League season until the end of the
2012–13 season, the Football League Championship was known as the Npower Championship.
On 18 July 2013, UK bookmaker Sky Bet announced a new 5-year agreement to sponsor the league.
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, then goals scored and then their head-to-head record for that season.
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
is at stake, when the teams are separated by a play-off game, though this improbable
situation has never arisen in all the years the rule has existed.
At the end of the season, the top two teams and the winner of the Championship play-offs
are promoted to the Premier League and the bottom three teams are relegated to Football
League One. The Football League Championship play-offs is a knock-out competition for the
teams finishing the season in third to sixth place with the winner being promoted to the
Premier League. In the play-offs, 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 semi-final then compete in a single match with the prize being promotion to the
Premier League and the Championship play-off 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 play-off
final. Broadcasting rights
UK Television From 2009 to 2012 Sky Sports had the rights
to broadcast 65 live matches, live coverage of both legs of both play-off semi finals
and the play-off final live. The BBC has the rights to show 10 first choice live games
for the regular 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. Sky Sports will
then take exclusive live rights to the Football League from 2013, having signed a three-year
deal worth £195m, representing a 26% reduction in revenue from the previous joint deal between
Sky and BBC. The new deal will include 75 live league games, all the play-off matches,
15 League Cup ties and selected Johnstone's Paint Trophy matches. Sky will also have highlights
packages, with the free-to-air rights yet to be decided.
Radio 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 5 Live or 5 Live
Sports Extra under their 5 Live Sport banner. Most matches broadcast on BBC radio are also
broadcast online to UK users on the BBC website. talkSPORT also has rights to broadcast each
of the Football League Play-off Finals. International
Australia – Setanta Sports Australia broadcasts live Championship matches every weekend
Brazil – ESPN Brasil has exclusive rights to broadcast live two Championship matches
every week. Bulgaria – Diema broadcasts live two Championship
matches every week. Canada – Unavailable.
Germany – sportdigital.tv broadcasts one or two games every week.
India and the subcontinent, Ten Action Plus broadcasts some of the matches in Non-HD.
Indonesia – CPI TV has exclusive rights to broadcast live in a dozent matches, beIN
Sports get the match for 100+ broadcasting around as little
Italy – Sportitalia had exclusive rights to broadcast live one match a week and highlights
show between 2005 and 2012. Mexico – Sky Sports Mexico has exclusive
rights to broadcast live two matches. New Zealand – Sommet Sports has exclusive
rights to broadcast all matches live or on delay.
Sweden – TV4 Sport shows one or two matches a week usually including a 3pm kick off on
the Saturday. France – LequipeTV shows one match a week.
Norway – Viasat Fotball shows one or two matches a week.
Romania – GSP TV shows two live matches per week.
United States – beIN Sport broadcast one or two matches a week.
Asia – most games are broadcast by Goal TV.
Streaming – Betfair and Bet365 both broadcast matches internationally. Betfair notes that
the territories to which they are able to stream events varies from sport to sport.
Bet365 notes that some events are not permitted to stream within the host country.
Stadia and locations
Previous seasons League champions, runners-up and play-off
finalists
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 got promoted they gained the most points for a second placed team.
For past winners at this level before 2004, see List of winners of English Football League
Championship and predecessors Relegated teams
Relegated teams Promoted teams
Top scorers See also
Football League Championship Manager of the Month
List of English football club owners List of attendance figures at domestic professional
sports leagues – Championship attendance in a worldwide context
References
External links Championship official site Football League
Championship Fan site The Championship Fan Site
Championship Stadia The Championship Stadia