"The Championship" redirects here. For the rugby union competition, see RFU Championship. For the rugby league competition, see Championship (rugby league)

Football League Championship

200px
Countries	England  Wales
Founded	2004–present 1992–2004 (as Division One) 1892–1992 (as Division Two)
Number of teams	24
Levels on pyramid	2
Promotion to	Premier League
Relegation to	League One
Domestic cup(s)	FA Cup
League cup(s)	Football League Cup
Current champions	Reading (2011–12)
Most championships	Sunderland and Reading (2 titles)
TV partners	Sky Sports BBC
Website	Official site
2012–13 Football League Championship

The Football League Championship (often referred to as The Championship for short, or the npower 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 wealthiest non-top flight football division in the world, and the sixth richest division in Europe.^[1]

The winners of the Football League Championship receive the Football League Championship trophy which is the same trophy as the old First Division (now the Premier League) Champions were handed prior to the Premier League's inception in the 1992–93 season.

For the 2012-13 season, Ipswich Town will have held the longest tenure in the Championship, having not been promoted or relegated from the division since the 2002–03 season.

History[link]

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.

On 30 September 2009, Coca-Cola announced they would end their sponsorship deal with the Football League at the end of the 2009–10 season.^[5] On 16 March 2010, Npower were announced as the new title sponsors of the Football League, and from the start of the 2010–11 Football League season, the Football League Championship is known as the Npower Championship.^[6]

Structure of the league[link]

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, then goals scored and then their head-to-head record for that season. 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 play-off game, though this improbable situation has never arisen in all the years the rule has existed.^[7]

At the end of the season, the top two teams and the winner of the Championship play-offs are promoted to the Premier League and the bottom three teams are relegated to Football League One. The Football League Championship play-offs is a knock-out competition for the teams finishing the season in third to sixth place with the winner being promoted to the Premier League. In the play-offs, 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 (home and away). The winners of each semi-final then compete in a single match with the prize being promotion to the Premier League and the Championship play-off 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 play-off final.

Broadcasting rights[link]

UK Television[link]

From 2009–2012 Sky Sports have the rights to broadcast 65 live matches, live coverage of both legs of both play off semi finals and the play off final live.^[8] The BBC has the rights to show 10 first choice live games for the regular 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.^[9] Sky Sports will then take exclusive live rights to the Football League from 2013, having signed a three-year deal worth £195m, representing a 26% reduction in revenue from the previous joint deal between Sky and BBC.^[10] The new deal will include 75 live league games, all the play-off matches, 15 League Cup ties (including both semi-finals and the final) and selected Johnstone's Paint Trophy matches. Sky will also have highlights packages, with the free-to-air rights yet to be decided.

Radio[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

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 5 Live or 5 Live Sports Extra under their 5 Live Sport banner. Most matches broadcast on BBC radio are also broadcast online to UK users on the BBC website.

talkSPORT also has rights to broadcast each of the Football League Play Off Finals.

International[link]

• Australia – Fox Sports broadcasts live Championship matches every weekend, as well as a Highlights show every Tuesday night at 7 pm.
• Brazil – ESPN Brasil has exclusive rights to broadcast live two Championship matches every week.
• Bulgaria – RING.BG broadcasts live two Championship matches every week.
• Canada – Sportsnet World broadcast lives games each weekends as well as highlights once a week.
• Germany – sportdigital.tv broadcasts one or two games every week.
• Hungary – Sport 1 and its sister channel Sport 2 broadcasts the matches.
• India and the subcontinent, Ten Action Plus broadcasts some of the matches in Non-HD.
• Italy – Sportitalia has exclusive rights to broadcast live one match a week and highlights show.
• Sweden – TV4 Sport shows one or two matches a week usually including a 3 pm kick off on the Saturday.
• France – LequipeTV shows one match a week
• Norway – Viasat Fotball shows one or two matches a week.
• United States - Championship matches are broadcast several times a week on Fox Soccer and Fox Soccer Plus cable channels, and occasionally on ESPN.

• Asia – (except Japan and Korea) most games are broadcasted by Goal TV.

• Streaming – Betfair and Bet365 both broadcast matches internationally. Betfair notes that the territories to which they are able to stream events varies from sport to sport.^[11] Bet365 notes that some events are not permitted to stream within the host country.^[12]

History of the 24 clubs in the Championship (2011–12 season)[link]

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 club's current spell only
3. Total seasons in league/spells in league/relegation to/relegation from and promotion to and promotion from figures include "Championship era" only (last seven seasons)

Previous seasons[link]

League champions, Runners-up and play-off winners[link]

¹ When Norwich City gained promotion to the Premier League they were the first team to be relegated to, relegated from, promoted to and promoted from the Championship.

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

Relegated teams (from Championship to League One)[link]

Relegated teams (from Premier League to Championship)[link]

Promoted teams (from League One to Championship)[link]

Top scorers[link]

Season	Top baller	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
2009–10	Peter Whittingham	Cardiff City	20
	Nicky Maynard	Bristol City
2010–11	Danny Graham	Watford	24
2011–12	Rickie Lambert	Southampton	27

Stadium capacities[link]

* ground contains some terracing.

See also[link]

• 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

References[link]

External links[link]

• Championship official site Football League
• Championship league statistics British Footie
• Championship Fan site The Championship Fan Site

The Football League

200px
Countries	England Wales
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	1888
Divisions	Football League Championship Football League One Football League Two
Number of teams	72 (24 in each division)
Levels on pyramid	2–4
Promotion to	Premier League
Relegation to	Football Conference
Domestic cup(s)	FA Cup, Football League Cup Football League Trophy[1]
International cup(s)	UEFA Europa League[2]
Current champions	Reading (2011–12)
Most championships	Manchester City (7 titles)
TV partners	BBC (Live & Highlights) & BSkyB (Live)
Website	http://www.football-league.co.uk/
2011–12 Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football. It was the top level football league in England from its foundation in the 19th century until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the Premier League (reduced to 20 clubs in 1995).

The Football League has been associated with a title sponsor since 1983. As this sponsor has changed over the years the league has been known in turn as the Canon League, the Today League, the Barclays League, the Endsleigh League, the Nationwide Football League and the Coca-Cola Football League, until the present sponsor npower was adopted in 2010, contracted until 2013.

Since 1995 it has had 72 clubs evenly divided into three divisions, which are known as The Championship, League One, and League Two. Promotion and relegation between these divisions is a central feature of the League and is further extended to allow the top Championship clubs to exchange places with the lowest placed clubs in the Premier League, and the bottom clubs of League Two to switch with the top clubs of the Football Conference, thus integrating the League into the English football league system. Although primarily a competition for English clubs, one club from Wales also takes part, while in the past Swansea City, Wrexham, Newport County, Merthyr Town and Aberdare Athletic have been members.

The Football League is also the name of the governing body of the league competition, and this body also organises two knock-out cup competitions, the Football League Cup and the Football League Trophy.

The operations centre of The Football League is located in Preston, while its commercial office is in London.^[3] It was formerly based in Lytham St. Annes, after its original spell in Preston.^[4]

Overview[link]

The Football League consists of 72 professional association football clubs in England and Wales. It runs the oldest professional football league competition in the world. It also organises two knockout cup competitions. The Football League was founded in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor, originally with 12 member clubs. Steady growth and the addition of more divisions meant that by 1950 the League had 92 clubs. Financial considerations led to a major shake-up in 1992 when, in a step to maximise their revenue, the leading members of the Football League broke away to form their own competition, the FA Premier League, which was renamed in 2007 as the Premier League. The Football League therefore no longer includes the top 20 clubs who belong to this group, although promotion and relegation between the Football League and the Premier League continues. In total, 130 teams have played in the Football League^[5] up to 2007 (including those in the Premier League, since clubs must pass through the Football League before reaching the former).

Competition[link]

League[link]

The Football League's 72 member clubs are grouped into three divisions: the Football League Championship, Football League One, and Football League Two (previously the Football League First Division, Football League Second Division and Football League Third Division respectively; they were renamed for sponsorship reasons). Each division has 24 clubs, and in any given season a club plays each of the others in the same division twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents. This makes for a total of 46 games played each season.

Clubs gain three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat. At the end of the season, clubs at the top of their division may win promotion to the next higher division, while those at the bottom may be relegated to the next lower one. At the top end of the competition, three Championship clubs win promotion from The Football League to the Premier League, with the bottom three Premier League clubs taking their places. At the lower end, two League Two clubs lose their Football League status with relegation to the National division of the Football Conference, while two teams from Conference National join League Two of The Football League in their stead.

Promotion and relegation are determined by final league positions, but to sustain interest for more clubs over the length of the season one promotion place from each division is decided according to a playoff between four clubs, which takes place at the end of the season. It is therefore possible for a team finishing sixth in the Championship or League One, or seventh in League Two, to be promoted rather than the clubs finishing immediately above them in the standings.

One professional football club from Wales, Cardiff City, plays in The Football League. This disqualifies them from participation in the Welsh Premier League and the Welsh Cup, and so also deprives them of the chance to qualify for UEFA competitions by this route. One English club, Berwick Rangers, plays in the Scottish football league system.

Reserve teams of Football League clubs usually play in the Central League (for the Midlands and North) or the Football Combination (for the South).

Cup[link]

The Football League organises two knock-out cup competitions: the Football League Cup (currently called the Capital One Cup) and the Football League Trophy (or for sponsorship reasons, the Johnstone's Paint Trophy). The League Cup was established in 1960 and is open to all Football League and Premier League clubs, with the winner eligible to participate in the UEFA Europa League. The Football League Trophy is for clubs belonging to League One and League Two of the Football League. The Football League celebrated its 100th birthday in 1988 with a Centenary Tournament at Wembley between 16 of its member clubs.

History[link]

William McGregor, founder of The Football League

After four years of debate, The Football Association finally legalised professionalism on 20 July 1885. Before that date many clubs made illegal payments to "professional" players to boost the competitiveness of their teams, arousing the contempt of those clubs abiding by the laws of the amateur Football Association code.^{[citation needed]} As more and more clubs became professional the ad-hoc fixture list of FA Cup, inter-county, and ordinary matches was seen by many as an unreliable stream of revenue, and ways were considered of ensuring a consistent income.

A director of Aston Villa, William McGregor, was the first to set out to bring some order to a chaotic world where clubs arranged their own fixtures. On 2 March 1888, he wrote to the committee of his own club, Aston Villa, as well as to those of Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion, Stoke F.C. suggesting the creation of a league competition that would provide a number of guaranteed fixtures for its member clubs each season. His idea may have been based upon a description of a proposal for an early American college football league, publicised in the English media in 1887 which stated: "measures would be taken to form a new football league...[consisting of] a schedule containing two championship games between every two colleges composing the league".^[6][7]

The first meeting was held at Anderson's Hotel in London on 23 March 1888 on the eve of the FA Cup Final. The Football League was formally created and named in Manchester at a further meeting on 17 April at the Royal Hotel. Although the hotel is long gone, the site is marked with a commemorative red plaque on The Royal Buildings in Market Street. The first season of the Football League began a few months later on 8 September with 12 member clubs from the Midlands and North of England: Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke F.C. (renamed Stoke City in 1928),^[8] West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Each club played the other twice, once at home and once away, and two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. This points system was not agreed upon until after the season had started; the alternative proposal was one point for a win only. Preston won the first league title without losing a game, and completed the first league–cup double by also taking the FA Cup.

In 1890 Stoke were not re-elected to the league, and were replaced for the 1890–91 season by Sunderland, who won it in their second, third and fifth year. Stoke were (re-)elected for the 1891–92 season, along with Darwen, to take the league to 14 clubs.

Preston North End, Aston Villa and Sunderland dominated the early years of the game; in the first fourteen seasons the only other clubs to win (single) league titles were Everton, Sheffield United and Liverpool.

Addition of the Second Division[link]

A new Second Division was formed in 1892 with the absorption of the rival Football Alliance. Alliance clubs Nottingham Forest, The Wednesday (later Sheffield Wednesday) and Newton Heath (later Manchester United) were added to the new First Division, and Darwen were reallocated to the new Second, bringing the First Division total to 16 clubs. With the addition of Northwich Victoria (from The Combination), Burslem Port Vale (later Port Vale, from the Midland League) and Sheffield United (from the Northern League), the Second Division started with 12 clubs, as Alliance club Birmingham St George's disbanded at that point. The bottom clubs of the lower division were subsequently required to apply for re-election to the League at the end of each season.

The Second Division increased to 15 clubs for season 1893–94 with the addition of Liverpool from the Lancashire League, Middlesbrough Ironopolis and Newcastle United from the Northern League, Rotherham Town from the Midland League, and Woolwich Arsenal (later Arsenal), who became the first team from the South of England to compete. Accrington, relegated from Division 1, and Bootle resigned from the League. For the following season 1894–95 there was a net increase to 16 with the addition of Bury from the Lancashire League, Leicester Fosse (later Leicester City) and Burton Wanderers (who later joined with existing Second Division club Burton Swifts to form Burton United) from the Midland League, while Northwich resigned and Middlesbrough Ironopolis disbanded.

Both Liverpool and Bury won the division at the first attempt.

In 1895 Loughborough replaced Walsall Town Swifts.^[9] In 1896 Blackpool from the Lancashire League and Gainsborough Trinity from the Midland League replaced Burslem Port Vale and Crewe Alexandra.^[10] In 1897 Luton Town from the United League replaced Burton Wanderers.^[11]

Automatic promotion and relegation for two clubs was introduced in 1898 when the previous system of test matches between the bottom two clubs of the First Division and the top two clubs of the Second Division was brought into disrepute when Stoke and Burnley colluded in the final match to ensure they were both in the First Division the next season. At this point both Divisions of the League expanded to eighteen, with the addition of Barnsley from the Midland and Yorkshire Leagues, Burslem Port Vale, Glossop from the Midland League, and New Brighton Tower from the Lancashire League to the Second Division.^[12]

20th century[link]

After a few years other northern clubs began to catch up, with the likes of Newcastle United and Manchester United joining the League and having success. From 1900, Aston Villa (1899–1900, 1909–10), Liverpool (1900–01, 1905–06), Sunderland (1901–02, 1912–13), The Wednesday (1902–03, 1903–04), Newcastle United (1904–05, 1908–09), Manchester United (1907–08, 1910–11) and Blackburn Rovers (1911–12, 1913–14) all won two titles prior to the outbreak of World War I, while Everton added a second title to their much earlier success in the last season, 1914–15.

It was not until the early years of the 20th century, and the expansion of both Leagues to 20 clubs (in 1905), that further southern clubs such as Chelsea and Clapton Orient (1905), Fulham (1907), and Tottenham Hotspur (1908) established themselves in the League. There would be a further wait until 1931 before a southern club, Arsenal, would win the League for the first time.

Unlike in most other Leagues in Europe, no single English club managed to remain an ever present in the division during the one hundred and four years of its existence as the top division in the country. Everton come closest, missing just four seasons through relegation, and remain the only club in England to have played over 100 top-flight seasons. Everton and their city rivals Liverpool also share the record of being the only two clubs in England never to have gone more than a quarter of a century without being crowned champions.

Post-World War I[link]

The League was suspended for four seasons during World War I and resumed in 1919 with the First and Second Divisions expanded to 22 clubs. On resumption West Bromwich Albion (1919–20) and Burnley (1920–21), both original 12 clubs, won their first-ever titles (in Albion's case their only title to date).

In 1920, leading clubs from the Southern League joined the League to form a new Third Division, which in 1921 was renamed the Third Division South upon the further addition of more clubs in a new Third Division North. One club from each of these divisions would gain promotion to the Second Division, with the two relegated clubs being assigned to the more appropriate Third Division. To accommodate potential difficulties in this arrangement, clubs in the Midlands such as Mansfield Town or Walsall would sometimes be moved from one Third Division to the other.

Following this burst of post-war growth, the League entered a prolonged period of relative stability with few changes in the membership, although there were changes on the pitch. In 1925, a new offside law reduced the number of opponents between the player and the goal from three to two, leading to a large increase in goals, and numbers on shirts were introduced in 1939.

Between 1923 and 1926, Huddersfield Town were the first team to win three consecutive league titles (and never won another one, though they finished as runners-up for the following two years). This was equalled by Arsenal between 1932 and 1935, during a period from 1930 to 1938 in which they won five titles out of eight.

Manchester City (1936–37) became the only other club to be added to the list of Football League winners prior to the outbreak of World War II, the fourteenth club to achieve the feat since 1888–89.

Post-World War II[link]

The League was suspended once more in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II, this time for seven seasons. The Third Divisions were expanded to 24 clubs each in 1950, bringing the total number of League clubs to 92, and in 1958 the decision was made to end the regionalisation of the Third Divisions and reorganise the clubs into a new nationwide Third Division and Fourth Division. To accomplish this, the clubs in the top half of both the Third Division North and South joined together to form the new Third Division, and those in the bottom half made up the Fourth Division. Four clubs were promoted and relegated between these two lower divisions, while two clubs exchanged places in the upper divisions until 1974, when the number increased to three.

Clubs to win their first League titles in the quarter-century following World War II were Portsmouth (1948–49 and 1949–50), Tottenham Hotspur (1950–51 and 1960–61), founder members of the League Wolverhampton Wanderers (1953–54, 1957–58 and 1958–59), Chelsea (1954–55), Ipswich Town (1961–62) and Leeds United (1968–69).

Tottenham Hotspur became the first club in the 20th century to win the League and F.A. Cup 'Double' in 1960–61, a season after Wolverhampton Wanderers had come within a whisker of achieving the feat themselves (Wolves won the 1959–60 F.A. Cup and were runners-up to Burnley in the League by a single point).

Post-World War II changes in league football included the use of white balls in 1951 and the first floodlit game (played between Portsmouth and Newcastle United) in 1956, opening up the possibility of midweek evening matches.

By far the biggest change for league clubs during this era was a new cup competition open to all the members of the League, the Football League Cup, which was held for the first time in 1960–61 to provide clubs with a new source of income. Aston Villa won the inaugural League Cup and, despite an initial lack of enthusiasm on the part of some other big clubs, the competition became firmly established in the footballing calendar, although it was not until the dawn of the 1970s that all 92 Football League clubs regularly participated in the competition season after season.

Substitutes (1 per team per match) were first allowed for injured players in 1965, and for any reason the next year.

1970s[link]

Beginning with the 1976–77 season, the clubs finishing level on points began to be separated according to goal difference (the difference between goals scored and goals conceded) rather than goal average (goals scored divided by goals conceded). This was an effort to prevent overly defensive play encouraged by the greater advantage in limiting goals allowed. In the event that clubs had equal points and equal goal differences, priority was given to the club that had scored the most goals. There has been only one season, 1988–89, when this level of differentiation was necessary to determine the League champion, and this was the occasion of one of the most dramatic nights in League history, when Arsenal beat Liverpool 2–0 at Anfield in the last game of the season to win the League on this tiebreaker – by a single Michael Thomas goal in the final minute of the final game of the season.

Two clubs won their first League titles during the 1970s: founder members of the League Derby County (1971–72 and 1974–75) and Nottingham Forest (1977–78), both clubs managed by Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Since then no clubs have won their first Football League (Premier League since 1992) title, so Nottingham Forest are the 22nd and last club to acquire the title for the first time in its history in 1977–78.

1980s[link]

Another important change was made in 1981, when it was decided to award three points for a win instead of two, a further effort to increase attacking football. (This scoring rule was not added by FIFA to the World Cups until the 1994 cup after the perceived dominance of defensive play at Italia 90.) In a similar vein, playoffs to determine promotion places were introduced in 1987 so that more clubs remained eligible for promotion closer to the end of the season, and at the same time to aid in the reduction over two years of the number of clubs in the First Division from 22 to 20. At the same time, automatic promotion and relegation between the Fourth Division and the Football Conference was introduced for one club, replacing the annual application for re-election to the League of the bottom four clubs and linking the League to the developing National League System pyramid. Emblematic of the confusion that was beginning to envelop the game, the number of clubs at the top of the league would return to 22 for the 1991–92 season, before once more dropping to 20 for 1995–96. The League also expanded to 93 clubs for the 1991–92 season and planned to raise the number again to 94 clubs for 1992–93, but after Aldershot and Maidstone United both went out of business within a few months of each other in mid-1992, this plan was abandoned and the League reverted to a 92-club membership. The issues creating the uncertainty in the game all centred on money.

The increasing influence of money in English football was evident with such events as the first £1m transfer in the game, that of Trevor Francis from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest in February 1979. The first £2million player was Tony Cottee (West Ham United to Everton, July 1988). Before the formation of the FA Premier League, the highest transfer fee paid was £2.9million for the transfer of Dean Saunders from Derby County to Liverpool during the 1991 close season. The first £3million player was Alan Shearer, who moved from Southampton to Blackburn Rovers in July 1992, the summer before the first Premier League season. At the close of the 1991 season, a proposal for the establishment of a new league was tabled that would bring more money into the game overall. The Founder Members Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the game's top-flight clubs, established the basic principles for setting up the FA Premier League.^[13] The newly formed top division would have commercial independence from the Football Association and the Football League, giving the FA Premier League licence to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. The argument given at the time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe.^[14]

1992: the foundation of the Premier League[link]

In 1992 the First Division clubs resigned from the Football League en masse and on 27 May 1992 the Premier League was formed as a limited company working out of an office at the Football Association's then headquarters in Lancaster Gate.^[15] This meant a break-up of the 104-year-old Football League that had operated until then with four divisions; the Premier League would operate with a single division and the Football League with three. There was no change in competition format; the same number of teams competed in the top flight, and promotion and relegation between the Premier League and the new First Division remained on the same terms as between the old First and Second Divisions.

2004 Football League rebranding[link]

2004–05 was the first season to feature the rebranded Football League. The First Division, Second Division and Third Division were renamed the Football League Championship, Football League One and Football League Two respectively. Coca-Cola replaced the Nationwide Building Society as title sponsor.

The Football League's collection is held by the National Football Museum.

Evolution of logo[link]

• The Football League logo until 1988.png

  1888–1988

• The Football League logo 1988-2004.png

  1988–2004

• The Football League.png

  2004–current

Records[link]

League sponsorship[link]

Since 1983 the League has accepted lucrative sponsorships for its main competition. Below is a list of sponsors and the League's name under their sponsorship:

• 1983–1986: Canon (Canon League)
• 1986–1987: Today newspaper (Today League)
• 1987–1993: Barclays Bank (Barclays League)
• 1993–1996: Endsleigh Insurance (Endsleigh League)
• 1996–2004: Nationwide Building Society (Nationwide Football League)
• 2004–2010: Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola Football League)^[16]
• 2010–2013: npower (npower Football League)^[17]

After the formation of the Premier League the newly slimmed-down football League (70 clubs until 1995 and 72 clubs since) renamed its divisions to reflect the changes. The old Second Division became the new First Division, the Third Division became the Second Division, and the Fourth Division became the Third Division. The financial health of its clubs has become perhaps the highest League priority due to the limited resources available. However there are some promising signs for the future, as the League planned to announce new initiatives beginning with the 2004–05 season, coinciding with the start of a new sponsorship agreement with Coca-Cola. The first of these changes was a rebranding of the League with the renaming of the First Division to The Championship, the Second Division to League One and the Third Division to League Two.
The League's cup competitions have different sponsors (see English football sponsorship for more information).

Media rights[link]

The other major source of revenue is television. The 1980s saw competition between terrestrial broadcasters for the rights to show League matches, but the arrival on the scene of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting (Sky TV), eagerly searching for attractive programming to build its customer base and willing to pay huge sums, changed the picture entirely. The League's top tier clubs had been agitating for several years to be able to keep more of the League's revenue for themselves, threatening to break away and form their own league if necessary. In 1992 the threat was realised as the First Division clubs left to establish the FA Premier League and signed a contract for exclusive live coverage of their games with Sky TV. The FA Premier League agreed to maintain the promotion and relegation of three clubs with The Football League, but The League was now in a far weaker position — without its best clubs and without the clout to negotiate high-revenue TV deals. This problem was exacerbated with the collapse in 2002 of ITV Digital, holder of TV rights for The Football League, which cost League clubs millions of pounds in revenue.

In 2001 the league signed a £900 million deal with ITV Digital, but in March 2002 the channel was put into administration by its parent companies when the league refused to accept a £130 million reduction in the deal. In November 2007 the league announced a new domestic rights deal worth £264 million with Sky and the BBC for the three seasons from 2009–2012. It covers Football League, Carling Cup and Johnstone's Paint Trophy matches and the full range of media: terrestrial and pay television, broadband internet, video-on-demand and mobile services. The deal represents a 135% increase on the previous deal and works out at an average of over £1.2 million per club per season, though some clubs will receive more than others. Sky will provide the majority of the coverage, but the BBC will have some of the higher-profile matches, namely 10 exclusively live matches from the Coca-Cola Championship per season and the semi-finals and finals of the Carling Cup.^[18]

Radio coverage in the United Kingdom is also a major source of live football and is a major output source for the Football League, with every major game broadcast nationally on BBC Radio Five Live, TalkSPORT and digitally on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra which is available digitally online or via DAB Radio. Globally, matches are sometimes broadcast on BBC World Service. Many Football League matches are broadcast to local audiences via BBC Local Radio stations or by commercial stations, and there is no limit to the number of stations who may broadcast each game. For example, in Swansea, Wales, each match is broadcast online, digitally and on analogue radio by BBC Radio Wales, in Welsh on BBC Radio Cymru and locally with Swansea Sound Radio and Radio City: Hospital Radio.

On 18 September 2008, the Football League unveiled a new Coca-Cola Football League podcast, hosted by BBC Radio Five Live's Mark Clemmit to be released every Thursday.^[19]

Governance and management[link]

Board[link]

The Football League Board meets monthly and consists of two independent directors, three directors representing the Championship, two representing League One, and one representing League Two. Current (April 2010) members are:^[20]

• Independent
  • Greg Clarke – Chairman
  • Ian Ritchie
• Championship
  • Keith Lamb – Middlesbrough FC
  • Shaun Harvey – Leeds United FC
  • Tom Glick – Derby County FC
• League One
  • John Nixon – Carlisle United FC
  • Lorraine Rogers – Tranmere Rovers FC
• League Two
  • Anthony Kleanthous – Barnet FC

Senior Management[link]

• Andy Williamson OBE – Chief Operating Officer
• Richard Heaselgrave – Chief Commercial Officer

Former Presidents[link]

• William McGregor 1892–94
• John Bentley 1894–1910
• John McKenna 1910–36
• Charles Sutcliffe 1936–39
• Will Cuff 1939–49
• Arthur Oakley 1955–57
• Joseph Richards 1957–66
• Terry Shipman 1966–74
• William Westwood 1974–81
• Jack Dunnett 1981–86
• Philip Carter 1986–88

Football League clubs[link]

Below are listed the member clubs of The Football League for the 2010–11 season. In total there have been 141 Football League members. Originally the bottom club(s) of the bottom division(s) had to seek reapplication each year, which was voted by all the other members. Clubs occasionally exploited this by banding together to vote a weaker team in. Walsall holds the record for the most reapplications for the Football League. Former Football League clubs include all 20 of the current members of the Premier League along with various relegated, removed or defunct clubs. Although the competition is primarily for English clubs, one of the sides competing in 2011–12 is from Wales—Cardiff City.

Note: Bold teams were promoted at end of season. Italic teams were relegated at end of season.

Past League winners[link]

NB: League and FA Cup Double winners are highlighted in bold.

1888–1892[link]

When the Football League was first established, all 12 clubs played in just one division.

1892–1920[link]

In 1892 the Football League absorbed 11 of the 12 clubs in the rival Football Alliance after it folded, meaning the League now had enough clubs to form another division. The existing division was renamed the First Division and the new division was called the Second Division.

1920–1921[link]

In 1920 the Football League admitted the clubs from the first division of the Southern League (the Southern League continued with its remaining clubs) and Grimsby Town, who had failed to be re-elected to the Second Division the season before and been replaced by Cardiff City (of the Southern League). The clubs were placed in the new Third Division:

1921–1958[link]

After just one season under the old format, the League expanded again. This time it admitted a number of clubs from the north of England to balance things out, as the last expansion brought mainly clubs from the south. The existing Third Division was renamed the Third Division South, and the new division was named the Third Division North. Grimsby Town transferred to the new northern division. Both divisions ran in parallel, with clubs from both Third Divisions being promoted to the national Second Division at the end of each season:

1958–1992[link]

For the beginning of the 1958–59 season, national Third and Fourth Divisions were introduced to replace the regional Third Division North and Third Division South: