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Football League Championship
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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, 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]
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.
Structure of the league
The league is comprised of 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 semi-finals. 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 Division One and the winner of the Division One playoff final.
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 2009-2012 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 paid by Sky.
In Australia, Fox Sports broadcasts live Coca Cola Championship matches every weekend, as well as a Highlights show every Tuesday night at 7pm.
Football League Championship clubs 2008–09
The following 24 clubs will compete in the Championship during the 2008–09 season.
1 Club is located in  Wales
Previous seasons
Winners
- See also: List of winners of English Football League Championship and predecessors
For past winners at this level before 2004, see List of winners of English Football League Championship and predecessors.
Play-off results
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Relegated teams
Top scorers
Championship Stadia 2008-09
| Home Club |
Stadium Name |
Capacity |
| Sheffield Wednesday |
Hillsborough |
39,814 |
| Derby County |
Pride Park Stadium |
33,597 |
| Southampton |
St Mary's Stadium |
32,689 |
| Sheffield United |
Bramall Lane |
32,609 |
| Coventry City |
Ricoh Arena |
32,609 |
| Nottingham Forest |
City Ground |
30,602 |
| Ipswich Town |
Portman Road |
30,311 |
| Birmingham City |
St. Andrew's |
30,009 |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers |
Molineux |
28,525 |
| Charlton Athletic |
The Valley |
27,111 |
| Crystal Palace |
Selhurst Park |
26,309 |
| Norwich City |
Carrow Road |
26,034 |
| Reading |
Madejski Stadium |
24,161 |
| Preston North End |
Deepdale |
23,408 |
| Barnsley |
Oakwell |
23,009 |
| Burnley |
Turf Moor |
22,546 |
| Cardiff City |
Ninian Park* |
22,008 |
| Bristol City |
Ashton Gate |
21,497 |
| Plymouth Argyle |
Home Park |
20,922 |
| Swansea City |
Liberty Stadium |
20,532 |
| Queens Park Rangers |
Loftus Road |
19,148 |
| Watford |
Vicarage Road |
19,920 |
| Doncaster Rovers |
Keepmoat Stadium |
15,231 |
| Blackpool |
Bloomfield Road |
9,612 |
*This ground contains terracing
Players' nationalities
Recent debate has centered around the 'foreign' makeup of the Premier League, with some, like former England manager Kevin Keegan, calling for limits on players from outside England[6]. Ostensibly, a high number of foreign players in an English league results in a severely weakened national team. Other prominent managers such as Sir Alex Ferguson, despite once having supported a foreigner cap[7], reject this logic and instead argue that imported talent raises the overall level of play in England[8]. Sepp Blatter and FIFA have encouraged the adoption of the 'six-plus-five' rule to encourage countries to produce more homegrown players[9] and while doubting the legality of such a move under EU law, the Football Association is seemingly not opposed to the idea[10]. In contrast to the Premiership, the Championship is overwhelmingly composed of players from England, but there are many other countries represented. The breakdown of current players' nationalities is as follows:
| Country |
Total # |
Country |
Total # |
Country |
Total # |
Country |
Total # |
 England |
346 |
 Denmark |
5 |
 Latvia |
2 |
 Faroe Islands |
1 |
 Ireland |
61 |
 Czech Republic |
4 |
 Mali |
2 |
 Gambia |
1 |
 Scotland |
51 |
 Hungary |
4 |
 Malta |
2 |
 Greece |
1 |
| Wales |
46 |
 Trinidad and Tobago |
4 |
 Norway |
2 |
 Guinea |
1 |
 France |
17 |
 Brazil |
3 |
 Peru |
2 |
 Macedonia |
1 |
 Northern Ireland |
14 |
 Canada |
3 |
 Serbia |
2 |
 New Zealand |
1 |
 Jamaica |
12 |
 Germany |
3 |
 Sweden |
2 |
 Pakistan |
1 |
 The Netherlands |
10 |
 Ghana |
3 |
 Tunisia |
2 |
 Portugal |
1 |
 Spain |
10 |
 Italy |
3 |
 Barbados |
1 |
 Sierra Leone |
1 |
 United States |
8 |
 Poland |
3 |
 Belgium |
1 |
 South Africa |
1 |
 Australia |
7 |
 Austria |
2 |
 Bulgaria |
1 |
 Slovakia |
1 |
 Iceland |
6 |
 Cameroon |
2 |
 Central African Republic |
1 |
 Thailand |
1 |
 Nigeria |
6 |
 China |
2 |
 Colombia |
1 |
 Togo |
1 |
 Argentina |
5 |
 Finland |
2 |
 Estonia |
1 |
 Turkey |
1 |
English players represent just over 51% of the total number of players in the Championship. When Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish players are added in, the proportion of United Kingdom players becomes 67%. It is worth noting that many of the players from outside the European Union also hold the passport of an EU country to circumvent restrictions on non-EU players.
The nationalities of Championship managers are: English (11), Scottish (4), Irish (3), Northern Irish (2), Welsh (2) and one each Spanish and Dutch.
See also
References
External links
Football League Championship 2008–09
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2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008–09 | 2009-10
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| English football league system – Level 2 |
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| 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 |
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(U-18) (U-17) (U-16) |
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| 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 |
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Records |
FA NLS Cup |
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Foreign players |
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