Championship: Table & Standings
Championship standings: points, wins, draws, losses and goal difference. Updated 1 August 2026. Team strength by chances created lives in the xG table; every game is in fixtures & results.
| # | Team | P | W | D | L | Goals | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Birmingham | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 2 |  Blackburn | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 3 |  Bolton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 4 |  Derby | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 5 |  Middlesbrough | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 6 |  Portsmouth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 7 |  West Ham | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 8 |  Bristol City | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 9 |  Burnley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 10 |  Cardiff | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 11 |  Charlton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 12 |  Norwich | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 13 |  Preston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 14 |  QPR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 15 |  Sheffield Utd | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 16 |  Stoke City | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 17 |  Watford | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 18 |  West Brom | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 19 |  Wolves | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 20 |  Millwall | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 21 |  Swansea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 22 |  Lincoln | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 23 |  Wrexham | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 |
| 24 |  Southampton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 |
English Football's Most Unpredictable Division
The Championship is the second tier of the English football league system, sitting directly below the Premier League and operating under the English Football League (EFL) rather than the Premier League's separate governing structure. Rebranded under its current name in 2004 after several earlier names, including Division One, the division is widely regarded as one of the most physically demanding leagues in world football because of its unusually large 24-club field and correspondingly long season.
Format and Points System
Twenty-four clubs play a full home-and-away round robin across 46 matchdays — each club faces every other club twice — from August to May, making it one of the longest single-division seasons in Europe. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat, and the champion is decided by total points after all 46 rounds.
Reading the Table
Standings list P (played), W (won), D (drawn) and L (lost), followed by GF (goals for), GA (goals against), GD (goal difference) and Pts (points), which sets final rank. Ties are broken first by goal difference, then goals scored, matching the same method used in the Premier League above it rather than head-to-head record.
Promotion, the Play-Offs, and Relegation
The top two clubs earn automatic promotion to the Premier League. Places three through six enter the Championship play-offs, a two-legged semi-final followed by a single final at Wembley Stadium widely described as the most financially valuable one-off match in world football, given the revenue gap between the Championship and the Premier League. At the bottom of the table, the three lowest-placed clubs are relegated to League One, with no play-off reprieve.
Historical Context
The Championship's promotion play-off, introduced in its earlier form in 1987, has repeatedly produced outcomes that reshaped clubs financially overnight — from Crystal Palace's and West Ham's various play-off promotions to Luton Town's 2023 rise from League One to the Premier League within consecutive seasons. Leicester City's 2014 Championship title, won on the way to their unprecedented 2016 Premier League triumph, and Norwich City's and Sheffield United's repeated yo-yoing between the Championship and Premier League illustrate how competitive and financially volatile the division is relative to the stability found further up the English pyramid.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Championship Table
How many clubs play in the EFL Championship?
Twenty-four clubs compete in the Championship, more than the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A or Bundesliga, resulting in a 46-match regular season.
How are Championship promotion places decided?
The top two clubs by points are promoted automatically; positions three through six enter a play-off tournament, with the winner of the Wembley final claiming the third promotion spot.
How many clubs are relegated from the Championship?
The three lowest-placed clubs at the end of the 46-match season are relegated to League One, with no relegation play-off.
The Championship's Place in the English Football Pyramid
Attendance figures in the Championship regularly exceed several of Europe's established top-flight leagues, and its 24-club, 46-game structure makes it more physically demanding on squads than any of Europe's traditional top five divisions, a factor frequently cited when newly promoted clubs struggle to adapt to the Premier League's shorter, higher-intensity 38-game calendar.
Why Bravsen Analyzes the Championship Through xG
A 46-game season with 24 closely matched squads produces long stretches where table position lags behind or overstates a club's actual performance level, particularly around the play-off boundary and the relegation zone, where two or three points frequently separate several clubs by the end of the campaign. Bravsen Intelligence reviews Championship matches individually with full shot, possession and chance-quality data, plus a Crime Index that shows when a result diverged from the run of play — a useful check on which clubs' league positions in this notoriously congested table reflect their underlying level and which are running hot or cold.
Financial Stakes of the Play-Off Final
The Championship play-off final has been estimated by analysts at various points as the most financially valuable single match in world domestic football when measured by the value of the prize on offer, since Premier League promotion is worth substantially more in broadcast revenue than the FA Cup or League Cup finals played the same season. That financial gap is a large part of why Championship clubs frequently spend beyond their immediate means chasing promotion, leading to recurring profit-and-sustainability disputes between clubs and the EFL over spending controls.