Football League First Division play-offs

The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of playoff matches contested by the teams finishing from 3rd to 6th in the EFL Championship table. The semi-finals are played over two legs, with 3rd playing 6th and 4th playing 5th, with the return fixtures following. The final is played at Wembley Stadium, although from 2001 to 2006, it was played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff while Wembley was being rebuilt.

The first playoffs at this level were contested in 1987, when it was the Football League Second Division. From 1993 to 2004, following the creation of the FA Premier League as a breakaway from the Football League, it became the Division One playoffs, and since 2005 has taken its current name as the Championship playoffs following a rebranding of the remaining three divisions of the Football League.

There is no single sporting event in the world more valuable to the winners, who end up approximately £60m better off than the losers, mainly due to the increased commercial television revenue from being promoted to the Premier League. However, by convention the two finalists agree that the loser will keep all the gate receipts from the game, so as to slightly soften the financial blow of missing out.

The most recent final was between Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday on 28 May 2016, with the score ending 1–0 to Hull City.

Ipswich town have been in the Championship play-offs a record eight times: 1987, 1997–2000 inclusive, 2004, 2005 and 2015, making the final only once in 2000 (when they won promotion). Leicester City have reached the Championship play-off final four times (in the space of five seasons), losing two in 1992 and 1993 and winning two in 1994 and 1996. Crystal Palace have also appeared in the final five times, losing in 1996 and winning in 1989, 1997, 2004 and 2013.

The team finishing highest in the league (third) has succeeded in winning promotion nine times out of twenty five seasons up to 2011, with 4th managing four promotions, 5th six and 6th five.

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