Football League Championship

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The Football League 2006-07

Football League Championship

Sport	Football
Founded	2004
No. of teams	24
Country	Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg England
Current champions	Reading F.C.

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 FA 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 Europe, after the top leagues in England, Italy, Germany, Spain and France, with combined club revenues of £306 million. <ref>First fall in Premiership wages, BBC News, 31 May 2006, reporting on Deloitte's review of football finance in 2004-05.</ref>

1 Structure
2 History
3 Football League Championship clubs, 2006-07
- 3.1 Results, 2006-07
4 Winners of the Football League Championship
5 Play-off results
6 Relegated teams
7 Top Scorers
8 References
9 See also
10 External links

[edit] Structure

There are 24 teams in the Football League Championship. Each team plays the other 23 twice (once at home, once away) and is awarded three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. From these points a league table is constructed. At the end of each season the top two teams, together with the winner of the play-offs between the teams which finished in 3rd-6th position, are promoted to the FA Premier League and are replaced by the three teams that finished at the bottom of that league. (One exception to this was in 1995, when the FA Premier League reduced its numbers to 20. In that year, only two teams were promoted, the top team, plus the winner of the play offs between places 2nd-5th.) Similarly the three teams which finished at the bottom of the Football League Championship are relegated to Football League One and are replaced by the teams which finished 1st, 2nd, and won the 3rd-6th place play-off in that division.

Final League position is determined firstly by points obtained, then by goal difference, then goals scored, and if necessary, a mini-league of the results between two or more teams ranked using the previous three criteria and finally a series of one or more play off matches.

[edit] History

In 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 (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). [1][2][3]. It appears that this included the attendances at the playoffs, as the league's own official averages give a total of just over 9.6 million, placing it behind Serie A. [4] Also, the Championship has 24 clubs compared to 20 clubs in both Serie A and Ligue 1, and 18 in the Bundesliga.

[edit] Football League Championship clubs, 2006-07

Club	Finishing position last season
Barnsley	5th in League One
Birmingham City	18th in the Premier League
Burnley	17th
Cardiff City	11th
Colchester United	2nd in League One
Coventry City	8th
Crystal Palace	6th
Derby County	20th
Hull City	18th
Ipswich Town	15th
Leeds United	5th
Leicester City	16th
Luton Town	10th
Norwich City	9th
Plymouth Argyle	14th
Preston North End	4th
Queens Park Rangers	21st
Sheffield Wednesday	19th
Southampton	12th
Southend United	1st in League One
Stoke City	13th
Sunderland	20th in the Premier League
West Bromwich Albion	19th in the Premier League
Wolverhampton Wanderers	7th

[edit] Results, 2006-07

Main article: Football League Championship Results

[edit] Winners of the Football League Championship

Season	Winner	Runner-Up	Promoted Play-Off Winner
2004-05	Sunderland	Wigan Athletic	West Ham United
2005-06	Reading	Sheffield United	Watford

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

[edit] Play-off results

Season	Semifinal (1st Legs)	Semifinal (2nd Legs)	Final
2004-05	Preston 2-0 Derby County West Ham United 2-2 Ipswich	Derby County 0-0 Preston Ipswich 0-2 West Ham United	West Ham United 1-0 Preston
2005-06	Leeds United 1-1 Preston Crystal Palace 0-3 Watford	Preston 0-2 Leeds United Watford 0-0 Crystal Palace	Leeds United 0-3 Watford

[edit] Relegated teams

Season	Clubs
2004-05	Gillingham, Nottingham Forest, Rotherham United
2005-06	Crewe Alexandra, Millwall, Brighton & Hove Albion

[edit] Top Scorers

Season	Top scorer, club	Goals
2004-05	Nathan Ellington, Wigan Athletic	24
2005-06	Marlon King, Watford	21

[edit] References

[edit] See also

Sports league attendances

[edit] External links

Football League Championship, 2006-2007

English football league system - Level 2

Promotion to: FA Premier League

Relegation to: Football League One

Football in England Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg

v • d • e</div>

League competitions	The FA	Cup competitions
FA Premier League	England	FA Cup
The Football League (Champ, 1, 2)	(U-21) (B)	Carling Cup
Football Conference (Nat, N, S)	List of clubs	Community Shield
Northern Premier League (Prem, 1)	List of venues	Johnstone's Paint Trophy
Southern League (Prem, Mid, S&W)	(by capacity)	FA Trophy
Isthmian League (Prem, 1N, 1S)	List of leagues	FA Vase
English football league system	Records	FA NLS Cup