Championship Relegation Battle 2025/26: Who Is Going Down?

Breakdown of the Championship relegation fight covering current standings, recent form, remaining fixtures and survival odds. Include historical data on what points totals have been needed to avoid the drop in past seasons. Completes the Championship content cluster alongside playoffs and top scorers articles.

One club is already down. Two more spots remain to be filled. With six games to play, the Championship's relegation battle involves five clubs and enough unpredictability at the bottom to make for a tense final few weeks. Here is the full picture updated to the start of April.

Who gets relegated from the Championship?

Three clubs are relegated from the Championship each season, dropping to League One. The bottom two go down automatically, with the third spot going to whichever club finishes 22nd. 

This season, one of those three places was confirmed earlier than any club has been relegated in English Football League history. Sheffield Wednesday were deducted 18 points across two separate sanctions: 12 for entering administration in October 2025 and a further six in December for failing to meet payment obligations. 

Winless since September, Sheffield Wednesday became the first EFL club ever relegated in February following a 2-1 defeat to Sheffield United on 22 February. The other two spots remain open.

The clubs fighting for survival right now

As of early April 2026, the table from 19th downwards looks like this:

The gap between safety and the bottom is narrower than the points suggest. Portsmouth, Charlton and Blackburn all have enough of a cushion that survival is in their own hands, but a run of bad results from any of them would reopen the conversation. 

The most turbulent situation is at West Brom, who are on their third manager of the season. Tony Mowbray left in the summer, Ryan Mason was sacked in January after a tenth consecutive away defeat, and Eric Ramsay arrived from MLS side Minnesota United on 11 January only to be sacked on 24 February after 44 days in charge. First-team coach James Morrison has taken interim charge until the end of the season.

Oxford United's position is the most precarious of the clubs currently in the drop zone. They face a difficult run-in with several games against promotion-chasing sides, and their goal difference leaves them with very little margin for error.

What points total do you need to stay up?

Looking at the last ten Championship seasons, the club finishing 22nd has been relegated with the following points totals:

The average across those ten seasons is 47 points. The highest total in that period for a relegated club is 51 points, set in both 2016/17 and 2023/24. With Sheffield Wednesday already down and their results effectively gifting points to everyone else across the season, current projections suggest around 49 points should be enough for survival this time around, though no club in the drop zone can afford to take that for granted.

What is the only English team never relegated?

Only two clubs currently in the Championship have never dropped into the third tier of English football: Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town. Both have yo-yoed between the top two divisions throughout their histories without ever falling into League One or below. Given both are pushing for Premier League promotion this season, that record looks safe for another year at least.

At the other end of the scale, Sheffield Wednesday have now been relegated from the Championship twice in four seasons, and their 18-point deduction makes this the most chaotic of the three drops. Leicester City, if they go down, would complete back-to-back relegations from the Premier League to League One for the first time in their history.

Keep updated on the battle at the bottom with Match Bingo

Six games to go, two spots to fill, and five clubs who cannot relax. Download now and stay across every result as the Championship season reaches its conclusion.