Eighth place in the Championship used to mean a long summer. Last season Millwall finished eighth, 24 points behind third-placed Sheffield United. The year before, the gap was 21. From the 2026/27 season, that eighth-placed side gets a ticket to the promotion lottery.
EFL clubs approved the change at an extraordinary general meeting at the Belfry on Thursday, March 5. The Championship playoffs grow from four teams to six, a rule that had stood since 1988-89.
How the new playoffs work
An eliminator round comes first, copying the National League model. Fifth plays eighth, and sixth plays seventh, each in a single match at the higher-ranked club’s ground. The winners move into the two-leg semi-finals against the clubs that finished third and fourth, and the semi-final winners meet at Wembley for a place in the Premier League.
The vote needed a simple majority, 37 of the 72 EFL clubs and 13 of the 24 in the Championship. The Guardian had reported a month earlier that the EFL board recommended the plan after it was first raised at a Championship divisional meeting in September, and that the FA board had signed it off despite opposition from the Premier League.
The Premier League’s worry is quality. A side that scraped in as eighth might go up and struggle. The FA board overruled that objection at the end of last year.
Money and the National League evidence
EFL chief executive Trevor Birch said the change would make the Championship more competitive, and hoped it would also add to its commercial appeal. “We are confident this change will further strengthen the Championship as a competition and give more clubs and their supporters a genuine opportunity of achieving promotion,” he said.
Sky Sports, the EFL’s domestic rights holder, approved the plan. It will not raise its fee for the last three seasons of the five-year, £935m deal, even though it gets two extra marquee games. A bigger payoff may come later, since the format could spread to League One and League Two if it works.
The National League offers a warning to the lower seeds. It has used six playoff places for eight seasons, and only Grimsby, in 2022, have gone up after finishing outside the top four.
Sources
- Championship playoffs will expand to six teams after approval from EFL clubs
- EFL clubs to vote on expanding Championship playoffs to six clubs
