Introducing: The Championship

We all know it’s been 65 years since we were last in the Second Division, even longer since we were promoted and all that jazz, but that doesn’t help us with the Championship of today.

As football fans, we all eye these divisions on occasion, but if I said to you, “Which club has been in the division the longest?” or “Where does the Championship rank in terms of world football?” you probably wouldn’t know. As a Lincoln City fan, you’re going to need to know a lot about the Championship, so let’s get started with the basics, shall we?

The Championship is the best division in English football. That’s purely situational, because it used to be League One, until Monday. Now it is the Championship. Fact.

Championship History

The Championship is the second tier of English football, and in returning to it, we’re merely getting back to where we started. Lincoln City were founder members of the old Second Division, way back in 1892, after a merger between the Football League and the rival Football Alliance. Indeed, it initially featured 12 clubs, including us, and current members Blackburn Rovers, Stoke, Derby County and Preston North End. Burnley and Wolves were also founder members.

Over time, it expanded to 24 teams and evolved its promotion and relegation system, moving from early test matches to automatic promotion. Relegation structures also developed: winners of the Third Division (North and South) would replace the bottom two. When we went to a two-tier system in 1958, just two clubs continued to be relegated, and in 1974, it was expanded so three clubs suffered the drop.

Technically, the Second Division became the First Division in 1992, when the Premier League came into being. Factually, Liverpool have won this level the most times, last winning in 1990, but it’s widely accepted that the First Division is the second tier. Confusing? It’s not really. Football purists hate that Sky think that football was invented in 1992, and will argue until they’re blue in the face.

In 2004, the First Division, being the second tier, needed a rebrand, and in came the Championship. Back in the day, when the likes of Liverpool and Forest were fighting for the title, it was often referred to as them winning “the championship”, so that became the official branding of the top division within the EFL.

The Championship doesn’t have a huge churn of clubs, and every season in the last eight has featured Swansea City, Stoke City, Blackburn Rovers, Millwall, Middlesbrough, QPR, Preston and Bristol City. The latter trio have spent 11 seasons in the division, which is closing in on a modern record.

Post-war, the record is 17 seasons, Ipswich Town dropping into the division in 2002 and dropping out of it in 2019.

Our Second Tier in World Football

Opta ranks the Championship as the 10th strongest division in the world, ahead of leagues such as the Danish Superligaen, Major League Soccer, the Dutch Eredivisie, and the German 2. Bundesliga.

In terms of attendances, the Championship is the fifth most-watched league in Europe and, with an average attendance of 23,048 per game in the 2023-24 season, ranks as the second most-watched second-tier league in the world, behind Germany’s 2. Bundesliga.

We’re entering the big time. Bear in mind our wage budget is around £5m this season, the lowest estimated budget for the Championship is £11m, while around 11 teams have a bigger budget than Luton Town in our division this season.

It’s worth noting that budgets and wage bills are partly conjecture in this article, using Capology. It’s established we’re 17th in the League One budget table, and our figure is close to reality, but I can’t be sure that Leicester City are close to £43m as suggested by the source site.

Lincoln City In The Championship

For the purposes of the article, we’re going to talk about the Championship as being the second tier. With that in mind, next season will actually be our 35th at that level, taking us one ahead of Bolton and level with Coventry City. Bear in mind, 22 of those seasons were between 1892 and 1920.

Having waited for our return since 1961, only two current EFL clubs with Second Division experience have waited longer for a return: Chesterfield (1951) and Newport County (1951).

Our best-ever finish in Division Two was fifth in 1902, when we finished a point behind Arsenal and ten points (five wins) away from promotion. Our best post-war finish was eighth in 1956, where just six points (three wins) separated us from the promoted teams. We finished seven points ahead of West Ham that season.

We’ve finished bottom of the table five times, in 1908, 1911, 1934, 1949 and 1961. We were relegated in 1920 as a result of a match-fixing scandal also involving Coventry City.