How do the EFL Championship playoffs work? Standings, finalists, past winners

Luton Town’s won the 2022/23 Championship playoffs, meaning their relegation from the Premier League being all but confirmed the day before this season’s participants began their bid for glory felt a little on the nose.

Life in England’s top flight is hard for newly promoted teams, especially those who progress through the postseason knockout tournament that concludes with a final at Wembley known as “the richest game in football”.

Luton beat Coventry City after a 1-1 draw in last season’s showpiece. Coventry missed out on a place in the top six this time around. Sixth-placed Norwich City face their former boss Daniel Farke and Leeds United, who missed out on the second automatic promotion place behind champions Leicester City to Ipswich Town.

Seeing all of last season’s promoted sides on their way back down underlines the daunting task at hand but each playoff contestant will have aspirations of getting up and staying there. Southampton, who like Leeds and Leicester were relegated in 2022/23, face West Brom in the other semifinal.

How does the annual finale to the domestic English season work? Who’s won before? Here’s what you need to know.

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Who qualified for the EFL Championship playoffs 2023/24?After the final day of the regular Championship season on May 4, Leeds United, Southampton, West Brom and Norwich City were confirmed as the four sides to enter the playoffs.

Leeds had been in firmly in contention for automatic promotion until their form collapsed over the closing weeks of the regular season. Farke’s side won one and lost four of their final six matches.

The last of those was a 2-1 reverse against Southampton at Elland Road. Russell Martin’s side take on West Brom, who moved above Norwich into fifth on the final day of the season.

Albion beat Preston North End 3-0, while Norwich lost 1-0 to Birmingham City — a result that could not spare their opponents from relegation.

Championship table 2023/24: Final top sixPos.TeamGPWDLGSGAGDPts1.Leicester City 46314118941+48972.Ipswich Town 46281269257+35963.Leeds United 46279118143+38904.Southampton 46269118763+24875. West Brom462112137047+23756.Norwich City462110157964+1573How do the EFL Championship playoffs work?The teams finishing in the top two places in the division are automatically promoted to the Premier League. The teams finishing between from third to sixth enter the playoffs.

The side who finish third play those who came sixth, with fourth place facing fifth.

In each of these two-legged semi-final ties, the team that finished higher in the league table plays the second leg at home — a system designed to give them an advantage because of their superior league position.

If the aggregate score is level at the end of 90 minutes of the second leg, an extra 30 minutes are played to try to create a winning team. The contest is decided by a penalty shootout if the scores remain level after extra time.

The away goals rule, which has been used in past competitions to send the team with the most away goals over the two legs through if the aggregate score finishes level, is not applicable any longer.

The first semi-final first leg will take place on May 12, eight days after the regular season concluded. The final will be held at Wembley Stadium, London, on May 26, one day after Manchester City face Manchester United at England’s national stadium in the FA Cup final.

Who are the past EFL Championship playoff final winners?While the familiar cliche that form goes out of the window under the pressure of the playoffs is not quite true — teams carrying momentum from the final stretch of the season have often won the final — the club finishing highest in the table has only been promoted in 14 of the 37 editions so far.

The outcomes since the format began in 1987, however, suggest that teams finishing 3rd are most likely to wind up celebrating in front of thousands of fans on the pitch at the national stadium — although that may be little consolation to supporters across the decades who have seen their teams suffer double agony after narrowly failing to go up automatically.

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Teams that finish in the lowest position, sixth, fare weakest in the playoffs — despite a common belief that a late surge up the table can prove vital. Only five of them have proceeded to promotion, and none have done so since Blackpool in 2010.

The greatest challenge for teams who win the playoffs arrives immediately after promotion, as they have less time than their Premier League rivals to finalise bringing in reinforcements before taking the step up.

It has been a mixed bag for playoff-winning teams in their first season in the Premier League after promotion in recent years: Hull City suffered immediate relegation in 2016 and Fulham have repeated the trick twice since then.

Huddersfield, however, survived a season among the elite, while Aston Villa have established themselves in the higher division and Brentford have completed their third successive top-flight campaign.

Playoffs yearWinnersFinal league position1987Charlton Athletic19th (First Division)*1988Middlesbrough3rd*1989Crystal Palace3rd1990Swindon Town**4th1991Notts County4th1992Blackburn Rovers6th1993Swindon Town5th1994Leicester City4th1995Bolton Wanderers3rd1996Leicester City5th1997Crystal Palace6th1998Charlton Athletic4th1999Watford5th2000Ipswich Town3rd2001Bolton Wanderers3rd2002Birmingham City5th2003Wolverhampton Wanders5th2004Crystal Palace6th2005West Ham United6th2006Watford3rd2007Derby County3rd2008Hull City3rd2009Burnley5th2010Blackpool6th2011Swansea City3rd2012West Ham United3rd2013Crystal Palace5th2014QPR4th2015Norwich City3rd2016Hull City4th2017Huddersfield Town5th2018Fulham3rd2019Aston Villa5th2020Fulham4th2021Brentford3rd2022Nottingham Forest4th2023Luton Town3rd* The first two seasons of the playoffs involved the Premier League (then known as the First Division) team immediately above the relegation places and the three Championship (then Second Division) clubs finishing below the automatic promotion places.

** Sunderland were subsequently promoted instead after Swindon were found guilty of illegal player payments.