User:Dizziness500/Football League Championship

From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championshit for short, or the NoPower 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 NoPower Championship was introduced for the 2004–05 season, having been previously known as the 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 champions were handed prior to the Premier League's inception in the 1992–93 season.

At present (2012–13 season), Ipswich Town and Cardiff City have held the longest tenure in the Championship, having not been promoted or relegated from the division since the 2002–03 season. However, Cardiff City have gained promotion to the Premier League for the 2013–14 season, which makes Ipswich Town retain the record solely.

History[edit | edit source]

In 2004–05 in English football, 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 La Liga (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(but none cares about this), 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, Cock-Cota announced they would end their sponsorship deal with the Football League at the end of the 2009–10 season. On 16 March 2010, NoPower 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 NoPower Championship.[6]

Structure of the league[edit | edit source]

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. 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 NoPower 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 Still NoPower League One and the winner of the Still NoPowerLeague One play-off final.

Broadcasting rights[edit | edit source]

UK Television[edit | edit source]

From 2009 to 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 £264 (in old money) that will mostly be paid by Sky. Sky Sports will then take exclusive live rights to the Football League from 2013, having signed a three-year deal worth £195, 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[edit | edit source]

Local radio stations with a local football team in The Championshit usually offer audio coverage of every live game. BBC Spork 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 Sporks Extra under their 5 Live Spork banner. Most matches broadcast on BBC radio are also broadcast online to UK users on the BBC website. SPORTtalk also has rights to broadcast each of the Football League Play Off Finals.

International[edit | edit source]

  • Australia – Sultana Sports Australia broadcasts live Championship matches every weekend
  • Brazil – ESPN Brasil has exclusive rights to broadcast live two Championship matches every week.
  • Bulgaria – Dilema broadcasts live two Championship matches every week.
  • Canada – Sporksnet World broadcast live games each weekend as well as highlights once a week.
  • Germany – sporkdigital.tv broadcasts one or two games every week.
  • Hungary – Spork 1 and its sister channel Sporkette 2 broadcasts the matches.
  • India and the subcontinent, Ten Action Plus broadcasts some of the matches in Non-HD.
  • Indonesia - PPI TV has exclusive rights to broadcast live in a dozen matches
  • Italy – Sporkitalia has exclusive rights to broadcast live one match a week and highlights show.
  • Mexico – SKY Sporks Mexico has exclusive rights to broadcast live two matches.
  • Sweden – TV4 Spork shows one or two matches a week usually including a 3pm kick off on the Saturday.
  • France – LequipeTV shows one match a week
  • Norway – Viasat Fotball shows one or two matches a week.
  • United States - beIN Spork broadcast one or two matches a week .
  • Asia – (except Japan and Korea) most games are broadcast by Goal TV.
  • Streaming – Betunfair and Bet563 both broadcast matches internationally. Betunfair notes that the territories to which they are able to *stream events varies from sport to sport. Bet563 notes that some events are not permitted to stream within the host country

Teams[edit | edit source]

Parsley

Buuuuurmingham City

Blueburn Rovers

Greenpool

Balltorn Wanderers

Brighton & No Hope Albion

Bristol Shitty

Turnley

Cardiff Shitty

Charlton Pathetic

Crystal Pallet

Derby Downie

Fuck A Field

Hell Shitty

Dipstick Town

Leeds Divided

Leicester Shitty

Piddlesbrough

Kill Walk

Robin Hood FC

Peterborough Divided

Sheffield Thursday

Whyford

Wolverhampton Ramblers


Top scorers[edit | edit source]

Season Top scorer Club Goals
2004–05 England Nathan Ellington Wigan Athletic 24
2005–06 Jamaica Marlon King Watford 21
2006–07 England Jamie Cureton Colchester United 23
2007–08 England Sylvan Ebanks-Blake Plymouth Argyle/Wolverhampton Wanderers 23
2008–09 England Sylvan Ebanks-Blake Wolverhampton Wanderers 25
2009–10 England Peter Whittingham Cardiff City 20
England Nicky Maynard Bristol City
2010–11 England Danny Graham Watford 24
2011–12 England Rickie Lambert Southampton 27
2012–13 England Glenn Murray Crystal Palace 29*

(*) - correct as of 10 March 2013