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 18 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.

[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.

[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.

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

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

[edit] Play-off results

[edit] Relegated teams (from the Championship)

[edit] Relegated teams (from the Premier League)

[edit] Promoted teams (to the Championship)

[edit] 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

[edit] Championship Stadia 2009–10

* ground contains some terracing.

[edit] 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

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Championship official site