Every EFL Championship Play-Off Final Winner: The Complete History

Full historical list of every Championship (and old First Division) play-off final winner with scores, venues and promotion details. Include stats on which league position has produced the most play-off winners and how promoted clubs have fared the following season in the Premier League. Evergreen content that gains huge search volume as the play-offs approach in late April and May.

They call it the richest game in football. A single match at Wembley that can be worth over £200m to the winners in prize money, broadcast revenue and commercial income across the seasons that follow. The Championship play-off final has been producing drama since 1987, and it shows no sign of stopping. Here is the complete record.

Every Championship play-off final winner from 1987 to today

The play-offs were introduced in 1987, with the first three finals played across two legs at the home grounds of the clubs involved. From 1990, the final became a single match. At first it was hosted at the old Wembley, then at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff from 2001 to 2006, and then back at the new Wembley from 2007 to the present.

Here’s the full list of winners from 1987 to today:

*Swindon won on the field in both 1990 and 1993 but were denied promotion due to financial irregularities.

Which league position produces the most play-off winners?

Third place carries the best historical record. Finishing highest in the play-off bracket gives a home advantage in the second leg of the semi-final, and third-placed sides have converted that into promotion in just over a third of finals since the competition began, more than any other position.

The last sixth-placed team to win the final was Blackpool in 2010. In the years before that, Crystal Palace in 2004 and West Ham in 2005 both came from the lowest rung of the four play-off teams to reach Wembley and win it. Since Blackpool's triumph, no sixth-placed side has been promoted through the play-offs.

The bottom line is that while finishing higher in the table helps, it’s far from a guarantee. Aston Villa won the 2019 final from fifth place, beating sixth-placed Derby County. Huddersfield won the 2017 final from fifth too. The play-offs have always been an equaliser and they always will be.

How play-off winners have fared in the Premier League

In reality, most teams struggle. Around half of all play-off winners are relegated in their first season in the Premier League. The financial and competitive gap between the Championship and the top flight means that clubs who scraped into the play-offs in fifth or sixth often arrive in the Premier League with a squad built for the second tier, not the first.

The exceptions are memorable because they are rare. Ipswich Town won the play-offs in 2000 as third-placed finishers and came fifth in the Premier League the following season under George Burley. Swansea City won the 2011 final and finished 11th in their debut top-flight campaign, also reaching the League Cup semi-final. Crystal Palace won in 2013 and finished 11th the following season, beginning an extended stay in the Premier League that has now stretched over a decade.

West Ham won the play-offs twice, in 2005 and 2012, and both times managed to stay up and reach Wembley again in their first season back. The 2006 FA Cup final saw them lose to Liverpool while qualifying for the UEFA Cup as FA Cup runners-up.

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