Talk:EFL Championship

Founded
Was it really founded in 2004? I thought all they did was change the name. Hevernon (talk) 21:06, 6 May 2014 (UTC)


 * I totally agree with this, the Premier League was a new entity, this was just a rebranding. In fact this is what it says in the "English Football League" wikipedia article. I think this article should either be about the Football League Division One/ Championship from 1992 onwards.Jopal22 (talk) 20:30, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

English Football League – article arrangement and article improvements
Hi folks,

This relates to EFL Championship, League One/Two and Second/Third/Fourth Division, and other pages in the Category:English Football League. I put this in the Championship Talk page as it's the highest-profile article that may be affected.

One problem is that the articles aren't as good as they should be: the Championship 'History' section is so focused on high attendances that it could be written by the EFL. Much of the article length is taken up by filler lists – listing every relegated club (not common on Wikipedia), every relegation from the PL, and every promotion from League One (i.e. things that happened in other divisions!). The Football League Second Division article is brief and inadequate for such a historic division. And nowhere makes clear that the FL's preferred brandnames were "Division One", "Two" and "Three" for years in the 1980s–2000s.

The second and wider issue is that the system of articles is a mess, and not because of users here; it's all down to the Football League (as was) and its renamings, and then renamings to undo their other renamings, which made their league even more confusing. As Wikipedia editors, we should focus on what is historically accurate, not on fleeting name-changes.

Would you agree or disagree, that


 * The Championship was a new competition in 2004? or
 * The Championship is essentially the same division as the original Second Division?
 * League One is essentially the Third Division of the 1960s–1980s?
 * League Two = the old Fourth Division?

This isn't a formal proposal of mergers, for the technical reason that some articles don't merge exactly: the 1992 rebrand means the "Second Division" article covers two levels at once.

I also don't want to be "divisive", so to speak – I just want whatever articles we have to be better and more informative. But the current situation doesn't reflect so well on these leagues, and we need a consensus on how to do that better.

Having the Championship article(s) cover 130 years would be a big change, but there are already several precedents for treating each tier as a continuous division through history. Some are rated "good" articles, for whatever that's worth:


 * List of winners of the EFL Championship and predecessors
 * List of winners of the EFL League One and predecessors
 * List of winners of the EFL League Two and predecessors
 * EFL Championship play-offs
 * EFL League One play-offs
 * EFL League Two play-offs
 * Template:EFL Championship seasons (headed "Second level")
 * Template:EFL League One seasons (headed "Third level")
 * Template:EFL League Two seasons (headed "Fourth level")
 * Category:EFL Championship play-off finals
 * Category:EFL League One play-off finals
 * Category:EFL League Two play-off finals

Things get silly in the international Template:UEFA third level leagues, where England has six different articles.

Even with mergers, the combined articles wouldn't be very long as they stand, but potentially could grow if a lot of historical info is added. (like with FA Cup, English Football League, Serie A). If so, there'd be a good case to split some info off to other articles, e.g. "Top goalscorers" in the Championship/2nd tier, 1892–present.

We should certainly keep and expand the article Football League First Division, with the main focus on 1888-1992 when it was the English "premier league" for 93 seasons – a rich history that the article barely deals with. (The 1992–2004 years should be mentioned there in separate sections, because the same info could be duplicated in EFL Championship).

Questions:


 * Should Championship, League One, League Two cover their division's whole history, or stay separate?
 * In a merger, for offshoot article titles, what names would you use?'''
 * e.g. if you merged this into this. I am fine with "EFL Championship" as shorthand for "2nd tier" if that's clarified in the intro, but opinions may vary.

Thanks, Demokra (talk) 02:21, 8 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Is it ok if we do this:
 * - Article: "EFL Championship"
 * - Section: History
 * - –1992: Second Division
 * - 1992–2004: Division One
 * - 2004–present: EFL Championship
 * Same goes for League One (Third Division, Division Two, EFL League One) and League Two (Fourth Division, Division Three, EFL League Two) Chong Yi Lam (talk) 04:34, 8 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Seems logical to merge and have "history" for lower leagues split (as suggested above) but we should keep the original first division and current Premier League separate, as that was a full split. BMB YT 500000 (talk) 15:55, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

The EFL Championship is definitely the same as the old Second Division, and the same as the 1992-2004 Division One. When a human changes their name they don't get a new Wikipedia page, although the name change is mentioned. So why not for sports leagues? Is there actually anyone who is interested in the English second level, but only back as far as 2004?

Also, it would probably be good if there was a page showing every English promotion and relegation back to 1892. (Maybe there already is, but it isn't linked at the end of the Football League page). But that's for another day.

The Premier League is a little different because the 1992 split was more than a rebrand: it had significant business implications. If we try to treat the EPL as exactly the same as the 1991 First Division, then the powers that be will try to fight us. We've probably got better things to do. PaulFrame1985 (talk) 14:45, 30 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Suppose it's just the Premier League that needs a separate article. The lower leagues can be merged together according to the level of competition (2nd tier, 3rd tier, 4th tier) Chong Yi Lam (talk) 04:11, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

I support merging the articles for the different variations of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tier of English football and to be named after the current version as per above by @PaulFrame1985. I would also add to this comment that "when a human [or organisation] changes their name they don't get a new Wikipedia page" it is also what happens in WikiFootball too but for some reason just not here. The 5th tier of English football was first known as the 'Alliance Premier', then the 'Football Conference' and now the 'National League (division)' but all history is covered in one combined article named after what it is currently referred to. Likewise, when a football club changes its name; It is referred to in the infobox and history sections of the Manchester United F.C. article that they were founded as 'Newton Heath LYR' but there is no separate article.

If a tier of English football becomes operated by a new organisation then it makes sense to separate the article—as happened with the Premier League breaking away from the English Football League, or when Chester F.C. was founded as a Phoenix club by fans of the defunct Chester City F.C.. However, the same football league organisation has operated the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tier of English football throughout its existence and has only changed the name. There should only be a split if the history section becomes too long but only under the article 'History of the EFL Championship'
 * The 'founded' section inside the infobox for the combined articles should be similar to this Manchester United article for a quick short summary before people even have to read the lead or history sections to understand the different variations. For example the EFL Championship article should mention something like this:
 * 1892; xxx years ago, as Football League Second Division
 * 1992; xx years ago, as Football League First Division
 * 2004; xx years ago, as Football League Championship
 * 2016; x years ago, as English Football League Championship JamesLewisBedford01 (talk) 02:00, 5 October 2022 (UTC)


 * @JamesLewisBedford01 if you check out The Football League's anniversary page, it will show that what is now the EFL Championship started as the Football League in the 1888/89 season.
 * From 1892 it became Football League Division One right up until 1991/92 when there was a split and it became the second level of the pyramid.
 * The League was known as "Barclays League Division One" for example in 1991/92 and 1992/93 even though the pyramid was changed and the same trophy is used to this day. I don't know why it is still confused as being always second in the pyramid. Caolán (talk) 01:41, 2 November 2022 (UTC)
 * @Caolán no one is confusing the two but this article is about what is currently the second tier of English football and thus we should give the previous names of what the second tier of English football was called. by James Lewis Bedford (talk) 01:56, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

aaaa
Please add a 'Promoted to' for the teams who went Championship > Premiee Leage 149.241.249.71 (talk) 20:20, 31 July 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: First Year English Composition 1001
— Assignment last updated by Rhashan.T (talk) 18:52, 24 August 2023 (UTC)