Football League Championship

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Football League Championship
Image:Football League Championship.png
Founded
2004 1992 - 2004 (as Division One) 1892 - 1992 (as Division Two)
Nation
Image:Flag of England.svg England
Template:WAL
Promotion To
Premier League
Relegation To
League One
Number of Teams
24
Level on Pyramid
Level 2
Cups
FA Cup League Cup
Current Champions (2006-07)
Sunderland
Current Season
Image:Current sport.svg The Football League 2007-08
Website
Official

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 2004-2005 season. It was previously known as the Football League First Division. According to Deloitte, in 2004-05 it was the richest non-top flight football division in the world, and the sixth richest division in the world. ^[1]

After analysis of the 2006-2007 season only 13 points separated the top 6 teams. The Championship was also the 5th most watched Football League in Europe behind the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1, most notably beating Serie A.

1 History
2 Football League Championship clubs, 2007-08
3 Play-off results
4 Relegated teams
5 Top Scorers
6 Championship Stadia 2007-08
7 Broadcasting rights
8 References
9 See also
10 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] Football League Championship clubs, 2007-08

Club	Finishing position last season
Barnsley	20th
Blackpool	3rd in League One (play-off winner)
Bristol City	2nd in League One
Burnley	15th
Cardiff City¹	13th
Charlton Athletic	19th in the Premier League
Colchester United	10th
Coventry City	17th
Crystal Palace	12th
Hull City	21st
Ipswich Town	14th
Leicester City	19th
Norwich City	16th
Plymouth Argyle	11th
Preston North End	7th
Queens Park Rangers	18th
Scunthorpe United	1st in League One
Sheffield United	18th in the Premier League
Sheffield Wednesday	9th
Southampton	6th
Stoke City	8th
Watford	20th in the Premier League
West Bromwich Albion	4th
Wolverhampton Wanderers	5th

¹Club is located in Template:WAL

[edit] Play-off results

Main article: Football League Championship Play-Offs

Season	Semifinal (1st Leg)	Semifinal (2nd Leg)	Final
2004-05	Preston North End 2-0 Derby County West Ham United 2-2 Ipswich Town	Derby County 0-0 Preston North End Ipswich Town 0-2 West Ham United	West Ham United 1-0 Preston North End
2005-06	Leeds United 1-1 Preston North End Crystal Palace 0-3 Watford	Preston North End 0-2 Leeds United Watford 0-0 Crystal Palace	Leeds United 0-3 Watford
2006-07	Southampton 1-2 Derby County Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-3 West Bromwich Albion	Derby County 2-3 Southampton (Derby won 4-3 on penalties, AET) West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers	Derby County 1-0 West Bromwich Albion

[edit] Relegated teams

Season	Clubs
2004-05	Gillingham, Nottingham Forest, Rotherham United
2005-06	Crewe Alexandra, Millwall, Brighton & Hove Albion
2006-07	Southend United, Luton Town, Leeds United

[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

[edit] Championship Stadia 2007-08

Home Club	Stadium Name	Capacity
Sheffield Wednesday	Hillsborough	39,814
Sheffield United	Bramall Lane	33,000
Southampton	St Mary's Stadium	32,689
Coventry City	Ricoh Arena	32,609
Leicester City	Walkers Stadium	32,500
Ipswich Town	Portman Road	30,311
Wolverhampton Wanderers	Molineux	28,525
Stoke City	Britannia Stadium	28,383
West Bromwich Albion	The Hawthorns	28,003
Charlton Athletic	The Valley	27,111
Crystal Palace	Selhurst Park	26,309
Norwich City	Carrow Road	26,034
Hull City	KC Stadium	25,404
Barnsley	Oakwell	23,009
Burnley	Turf Moor	22,546
Preston North End	Deepdale*	22,225
Cardiff City	Ninian Park*	22,008
Bristol City	Ashton Gate	21,497
Plymouth Argyle	Home Park	20,922
Watford	Vicarage Road	19,920
Queens Park Rangers	Loftus Road	19,148
Blackpool	Bloomfield Road	9,612
Scunthorpe United	Glanford Park*	9,183
Colchester United*	Layer Road*	6,200

*This ground contains terracing

[edit] Broadcasting rights

The television rights for the Football League Championship are currently held by Sky Sports. Sky Sports will hold the exclusive rights until the 2009-2010 season. Highlights of Championship matches and goals of league one and league two matches are shown by ITV on The Championship. From 2009-2010 Sky Sports will show 65 live matches. The BBC will show 10 live games a season and has rights to show a highlight show. The deal is on a three year contract and is worth £264m that will mostly be payed by sky.

[edit] References

^ First fall in Premiership wages, BBC News, 31 May 2006, reporting on Deloitte's review of football finance in 2004-05.
^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4748403.stm
^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1712938,00.html
^ http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/NewsFromTheFA/Postings/2005/08/Features_ChampionshipSuccess.htm

[edit] See also

Sports league attendances

[edit] External links

Template:English football league system cells Template:Fb inner end

Template:Tnavbar-header Template:Fb inner start
Barnsley \| Blackpool \| Bristol City \| Burnley \| Cardiff City \| Charlton Athletic \| Colchester United \| Coventry City \| Crystal Palace \| Hull City \| Ipswich Town \| Leicester City \| Norwich City \| Plymouth Argyle \| Preston North End \| Queens Park Rangers \| Scunthorpe United \| Sheffield United \| Sheffield Wednesday \| Southampton \| Stoke City \| Watford \| West Bromwich Albion \| Wolverhampton Wanderers <center> Template:Fb inner end
Template:Tnavbar-header Template:Fb inner start
League competitions	The FA	Cup competitions
Premier League	England (B) (C)	FA Cup
The Football League (Champ, 1, 2)	(U-21) (U-20) (U-19)	Football League Cup
Football Conference (Nat, N, S)	(U-18) (U-17) (U-16)	FA Community Shield
Northern Premier (Prem, 1N, 1S)	List of clubs	Football League Trophy
Southern League (Prem, 1Mid, 1S&W)	List of venues	FA Trophy
Isthmian League (Prem, 1N, 1S)	(by capacity)	Conference League Cup
English football league system	List of leagues	FA Vase
	Records	FA NLS Cup
	Foreign players