Championship 2025/26: Everything you need to know in our Ultimate Guide | OneFootball

EFL Championship

Everything you need to know about the Championship 2025/26 season

Considered one of the toughest leagues in world football, the Championship 2025/26 kicks-off in August. In his Ultimate Guide, Ste Tudor tells you everything you need to know about the 10 months of mayhem to come...

When does Championship 2025/26 kick off and how to watch?

The 2025-26 EFL season will consist of 33 weekend rounds, nine midweek rounds, and four Bank Holiday rounds and cumulatively amounts to 552 matches. Not for nothing is the league compared to a steeplechase, one that is fiercely competitive and extremely arduous.It all begins on the weekend of August 8th, 9th and 10th with Birmingham City and Ipswich Town opening proceedings with a televised fixture on the Friday evening. The game will be screened live on Sky Sports along with two further contests the following day and Leicester City v Sheffield Wednesday on the Sunday. All other matches can be viewed via Sky Sports+.

Televised games are also available on the streaming service NOW.

The 2025/26 Championship campaign kicks off one week before the new Premier League season and one week after the League One and Two seasons get underway.

Big early Championship match-ups you don't want to miss

We don't have to wait long for fascinating fixtures, with two promoted sides from League One pitted against recent Premier League teams on the opening weekend. Birmingham host Ipswich and Wrexham take a long journey down to Southampton.

The following weekend sees the Saints head to Portman Road, their last encounter with Ipswich a top-flight affair back in February. Both teams are strongly fancied to make a swift return to the Premier League next May, priced up at 5/4 (Ipswich) and 7/4 (Southampton) to gain promotion. Even at this very early juncture the points will matter.

Matchweek 3 has Middlesbrough travel to Norwich and again this is an early 'six-pointer' with both teams under new management and widely tipped to challenge for a Play-Off spot or better.

Staying with Southampton, their relegation puts them in the same division with their historic rivals Portsmouth. The first South Coast derby for 13 years takes place at St Marys over the weekend of 13/14 September.

Meet the Championship newbies

Having won back-to-back-to-back promotions a lot of eyes will be on Wrexham this term, not least because of the heavy investment and Hollywood glamour that is behind their rise.

Yet in the betting, it was Birmingham who took the early interest with 19% of the bet-share going into June backing the Blues to finish as champions for a second year running. Like the Red Dragons, Brum are well-financed and additionally have a shrewd tactician in Chris Davies at the helm.

After accruing an EFL record-breaking 111 points last season, momentum can do funny things.

Completing the promoted sides, Charlton Athletic will be looking to consolidate, competing in the second tier after a five-year absence.

Benefiting from parachute payments and with Premier League-standard players among their squads, much greater demands will be placed on Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton who all make a quick return to the Championship after a single, doomed campaign in the promised land.

All three clubs are currently focusing on cutting their cloth accordingly before making any big waves in the transfer market.

Who are the favourites to go up from the Championship?

For the reasons stated above, all three of the sides relegated from the top-flight in May feature strongly in the promotion betting.Ipswich Town are 5/4 to go up, via automatic promotion or the Play-Offs. Kieran McKenna's men are 9/2 to finish top of the pile.

Under new-management, Southampton are also strongly fancied to yo-yo back to the Premier League. The Saints are second favourites at 7/4

Leicester City are a lengthier 4/1, possibly due to the dramatic nature of their slump from December on last term. There are also significant financial constraints and the retirement of Jamie Vardy to factor in.

Elsewhere, Birmingham City are firmly in the mix at 23/10, as are Sheffield United 21/10. The Blades suffered Play-Off heartbreak at Wembley after finishing third in 2024/25.

Coventry City and Middlesbrough, meanwhile, are both priced at 7/2. The Sky Blues have been knocking at the door for several seasons now, coming fifth, ninth and fifth.

By general consensus, Boro (ground pictured above) possess a squad good enough to mount a promotion charge and have a new manager in Rob Edwards, who took Luton Town up in 2023.

Dark horses and teams to swerve

It's only a slight exaggeration to claim that Wrexham go into this campaign cast as the poor cousins after being the big spenders in each and every division they have previously excelled in. The Welsh side are expected to have the 19th highest wage bill in the second tier.

Then there's West Brom who undoubtedly have the pedigree to compete at the top but too often flatter to deceive, finishing mid-table in three of their last four seasons. Moreover, the appointment of Ryan Mason as head coach feels like a risk.

Speaking of pedigree, Norwich City have secured promotion three times in the last decade and better things are expected from them this time out to last. The Canaries are well-priced at 5/1 to fly high.

Typically too, there is also a surprise package inhabiting the top six at the business end of any Championship campaign. Could Blackburn Rovers at 10/1 be that side in 2025/26? Rovers ended last season on a positive note, unbeaten in six, as spring appointment Valerien Ismael's methods began to take hold.

Who are the favourites to go down?

It's no surprise to see some of the teams who struggled last term touted to do likewise again. Preston North End and Derby County finished 20th and 19th respectively last season and are backed in some quarters to suffer an even worse fate this time around.

The exception to this rule is Hull City who survived by the skin of their teeth last May. New boss Sergej Jakirovic is tipped to improve the Tigers and the Bosnian has wasted little time in overhauling his squad.

Lastly, there is Portsmouth and Oxford United who both came up in 2024 and ultimately saw off the threat of an immediate return to League One. Perhaps these feats are viewed by some as an over-achievement and now gravity is anticipated to do what gravity does.

Championship trends in recent years

When assessing the last 10 years of Championship football, we find relegated Premier League sides immediately go back up a little over a third of the time.

Moreover, eight of the last 10 Championship seasons have seen at least one relegated team bounce straight back to the top-flight which is a compelling argument to find value in Leicester's odds, or Southampton at 7/4 or Ipswich at 5/4 for that matter.

Still, if 11 of the last 30 promoted teams since 2015/16 were top-flight sides 12 months earlier we must also consider the 19 teams that came down and stayed down.

Indeed, the average league finish for sides straight after dropping from the Premier League is seventh. That's outside of the Play-Off places.

Naturally, teams coming up from League One should be assessed differently, with consolidation typically their objective. There has only been one exception to that rule in the last decade with Ipswich gaining consecutive promotions in 2023/24. A year earlier, Sunderland reached the Play-Offs after coming up.

These success stories, however, are regrettably rare, with over a quarter (26.6%) of promoted sides making a swift return to League One.

The average league finish for promoted teams since 2015 is 18th.

Before we move on, some more stats that may be useful, or at least, interesting.

The last 10 Championship title-winners have averaged 95.8 points.

The average number of points needed to secure a Play-Off spot has been 73.5.

And don't be too disheartened if your title-winning pick is trailing 10 games in. Only one club in the last decade has been top after 10 games and finished as champions (Leicester in 2023/24).

In 2015/16, Burnley were sixth a quarter through the season before finding their mojo.

Proven form in the Championship

Who are the second tier mainstays? Who has proven form for knocking at the Play-Off doors?

The table below shows how long each club has been in the Championship, their average league position in that time, and when they were last - if ever - in the top-flight.

Managers to note in the Championship 2025/26

Southampton's appointment of Will Still is an intriguing one, the 32-year-old making headlines with Reims before arguably under-achieving at Lens last term.

Sergej Jakirovic heading to Hull fascinates too. Less than a year ago the austere head coach was in the Champions League with Dinamo Zagreb.

In South Yorkshire, former Hull boss Ruben Selles replaces Chris Wilder while Liam Manning takes charge at Norwich after performing wonders at Bristol City.

Of those in-situ, Frank Lampard has enhanced his managerial reputation at Coventry and the Sky Blues appear to be in very good hands. Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna, meanwhile, has more than proven himself at this level.

Look out too for Nathan Jones at Charlton. He has form for being highly animated on the touchline.

The most significant transfers so far

At this early juncture, most clubs are focusing on pruning their squads, clearing the decks for new arrivals to come. There is also a multitude of players returning from loan spells, or heading back to their parent clubs after seeing their loans end.

The biggest spenders so far have been Norwich City, investing just shy of £5m on Manchester City midfielder Jacob Wright and defender Jakov Medic from Ajax. The former has a high ceiling, even boasting Champions League minutes under his belt. The latter impressed last season on loan at VfL Bochum.

Elsewhere, Southampton have bolstered their defence with the addition of Joshua Quarshie from Hoffenheim. The Saints shipped in 2.2 goals per 90 last term so strengthening in that area is a no-brainer.

The most costly individual to date is winger Zeidane Ioussa, the Swede set to liven up Swansea's flanks at a cost of £5.5m.

Championship 2025/26 Golden Boot contenders

No Championship player managed to break the 20-goal barrier last season, with Leeds' Joel Piroe falling just one short on 19. Norwich pair Borja Sainz and Josh Sargent also came close which explains why both are currently being pursued by Premier League clubs. Sainz has been linked with Nottingham Forest, as well as Porto. Sargent is a Leeds target.

Beyond those two, Wrexham's new signing Ryan Hardie is worth noting. The 28-yer-old scored 10 for a struggling Plymouth side last season. If the Red Dragons roar, he could greatly improve on that total.

Of the three relegated clubs, two have lost their leading goal-scorers in 2024/25. That leaves Southampton who have Ben Brereton Diaz in their ranks. The Chilean forward fired 22 in the Championship in 2021/22.

Championship Stadiums Info

Finally, if you're travelling to Championship matches in 2025/26, here is information about the grounds for all 24 clubs.