The EFL Championship is known to be one of the most competitive and difficult leagues to predict in European football, which also helps make it one of the most entertaining to watch.
With the incentive of three teams being promoted to the Premier League every season, there is always plenty at stake in the second tier of English football, a division that is packed full of some of historically the biggest clubs in the English game.
Dates
The 2026/27 EFL Championship season started on Friday 14th August 2026, with Wolves drawing 2-2 against Blackburn Rovers.
A total of 552 matches will be played during the regular season, which will culminate on 1st May 2027.
That will signal the end of the campaign for the majority of teams in the Championship, but the sides that finish third to eighth will contest the play-offs to decide the final promotion place, with the play-off final taking place over the final Bank Holiday weekend in May next year.
Teams & stadiums
Team | Stadium | Capacity |
Birmingham City | St Andrew's | 29,409 |
Blackburn Rovers | Ewood Park | 31,367 |
Bolton Wanderers | Toughsheet Community Stadium | 28,723 |
Bristol City | Ashton Gate | 26,462 |
Burnley | Turf Moor | 21,900 |
Cardiff City | Cardiff City Stadium | 33,280 |
Charlton Athletic | The Valley | 27,111 |
Derby County | Pride Park | 33,597 |
Lincoln City | Sincil Bank | 11,400 |
Middlesbrough | Riverside Stadium | 34,742 |
Millwall | The Den | 20,146 |
Norwich City | Carrow Road | 27,359 |
Portsmouth | Fratton Park | 20,867 |
Preston North End | Deepdale | 23,408 |
Queens Park Rangers | Loftus Road | 18,439 |
Sheffield United | Bramall Lane | 32,050 |
Southampton | St Mary's Stadium | 32,384 |
Stoke City | bet365 Stadium | 30,089 |
Swansea City | Swansea.com Stadium | 21,088 |
Watford | Vicarage Road | 22,200 |
West Bromwich Albion | The Hawthorns | 26,850 |
West Ham United | London Stadium | 62,500 |
Wolverhampton Wanderers | Molineux Stadium | 31,750 |
Wrexham | Racecourse Ground | 10,771 |
Structure & format
The Championship is the second-highest division in the English Football League pyramid and consists of 24 teams, with the top two at the end of each season being promoted to the Premier League automatically.
The final promotion place is decided via a play-off format, between the teams that finish third to eighth.
The teams that finish third and fourth progress straight to the semi-finals, with those that finished fifth to eighth playing through an eliminator stage where the winners progress. Third place then play the lowest finishing remaining side.
The winner of those semi-finals progress to the play-off final.
Billed as the 'richest game in football', the winner of that one-off final at Wembley will not only secure promotion to the Premier League, but they will also receive a windfall of upwards of £135m.
There are also three relegation places to fill in each Championship season, with the bottom three teams in the division at the end of every campaign suffering automatic relegation to League One.
History
There has been a second tier of the English Football League pyramid for the last 132 years, but the division has taken on different guises over that time.
For the first 100 years of its existence it was known as the Football League Second Division, but that all changed in 1992 with the formation of the Premier League.
The Premier League replaced the Football League First Division as the top tier of the EFL pyramid, with the second tier then becoming known as the First Division for the next 12 years.
However, in 2004 the second tier was rebranded again and became known as the Championship, the title it still holds to this day.
Previous winners
Since the Championship took on its current form in 2004, 23 teams have been crowned champions of the second tier, with Sunderland landing the first title during the 2004/05 season.
Of those 23 teams, six have lifted the title twice - Sunderland, Reading, Wolves, Newcastle United, Norwich City and Burnley - the latter claiming the second of their titles in 2023.
The Clarets clinched the league crown in fine style, bouncing back to the Premier League at the first time of asking after smashing the 100-point barrier.
The second tier of course dates back further than 2004 and the most-successful teams in the competition's history are Leicester and Manchester City, who have both won the title on seven occasions.
Season | Champions | Runners-up | Play-off winners |
2004/05 | Sunderland | Wigan | West Ham |
2005/06 | Reading | Sheffield United | Watford |
2006/07 | Sunderland | Birmingham | Derby |
2007/08 | West Brom | Stoke | Hull |
2008/09 | Wolves | Birmingham | Burnley |
2009/10 | Newcastle | West Brom | Blackpool |
2010/11 | QPR | Norwich | Swansea |
2011/12 | Reading | Southampton | West Ham |
2012/13 | Cardiff | Hull | Crystal Palace |
2013/14 | Leicester | Burnley | QPR |
2014/15 | Bournemouth | Watford | Norwich |
2015/16 | Burnley | Middlesbrough | Hull |
2016/17 | Newcastle | Brighton | Huddersfield |
2017/18 | Wolves | Cardiff | Fulham |
2018/19 | Norwich | Sheffield United | Aston Villa |
2019/20 | Leeds | West Brom | Fulham |
2020/21 | Norwich | Watford | Brentford |
2021/22 | Fulham | Bournemouth | Nottingham Forest |
2022/23 | Burnley | Sheffield United | Luton |
2023/24 | Leicester | Ipswich | Southampton |
2024/25 | Leeds | Burnley | Sunderland |
2025/26 | Coventry | Ipswich | Hull |
