Relegation is basically the "grim reaper" of English football. You spend a whole year fighting, bleeding for every point, and then—poof—your TV revenue vanishes and you're playing at a stadium that holds 5,000 people. If you're wondering how many teams get relegated from Championship life each year, the short answer is three.
Three teams. That's it.
But honestly, that number doesn't even begin to tell the full story. It sounds simple enough when you look at a league table, but when you're a fan of a club like Cardiff City, Plymouth Argyle, or Luton Town—all of whom felt the sting of the drop in the 2024/25 season—it’s a slow-motion car crash. The Championship is widely considered the most unpredictable league in the world. You’ve got former Premier League giants with massive "parachute payments" competing against scrappy underdogs who’ve climbed up from the lower tiers.
The Cold, Hard Mechanics of the Drop
The EFL Championship consists of 24 teams. Every single one of them plays 46 games. By the time May rolls around, the three clubs sitting at the bottom of the pile—positions 22, 23, and 24—are automatically relegated to League One.
There are no playoffs for relegation. Unlike the promotion side of things, where the 3rd to 6th place teams get a "second chance" at Wembley, the bottom of the table is a trap door. You fall through, and you’re gone.
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What Actually Happens if Points Are Level?
Sometimes it’s not as clean as just looking at the points column. You’ve probably seen seasons where the battle goes down to the literal last minute of "Squeaky Bum Time." If two teams are tied on points, the EFL uses a specific hierarchy to decide who stays up and who goes down:
- Goal Difference: This is the big one. Your total goals scored minus goals conceded.
- Goals Scored: If the difference is the same, the team that attacked more and scored more stays.
- Head-to-Head Record: They look at the results of the two games those specific teams played against each other.
- Wins: The total number of victories in the season.
Kinda crazy, but if they are still tied after all that (which has basically never happened for a relegation spot), they’d technically have to play a neutral-site playoff match. Most of us just pray it never comes to that because the stress would probably end us.
How Many Points Do You Actually Need to Stay Up?
Ask any manager, and they’ll give you the magic number: 50.
Historically, 50 points is the "gold standard" for safety. If you hit 50, you’re usually—though not always—safe. In the 2023/24 season, for instance, Blackburn Rovers survived with 53 points, while Birmingham City went down with 50. Yeah, you read that right. Sometimes even the "safe" number isn't enough.
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In 2025, we saw a similar scrap. Looking at the long-term data, the average points needed to avoid being one of the how many teams get relegated from Championship status usually hovers around 47 or 48. But you don't want to be "average" when your club's financial future is on the line.
The Financial Cliff: Why Relegation Sucks
It isn't just about playing different teams. It's about the money.
When a team drops from the Premier League to the Championship, they get "parachute payments" to help them soften the blow of losing that massive TV deal. But when you drop from the Championship to League One? The safety net is much smaller.
- TV Revenue: The Championship has a decent domestic and international broadcast deal. League One? Not so much.
- Player Contracts: Most Championship players have "relegation clauses" that slash their wages by 40% or 50% if they go down. If they don't, the club usually has to sell them for pennies on the dollar just to keep the lights on.
- Attendance: While some big clubs (think Sunderland or Derby County in recent years) keep their fans in League One, many see a massive dip in ticket sales.
Real Talk: Why the "Three Teams" Rule Is So Harsh
The reason the Championship is so terrifying is the "Double Drop" threat. We saw it with Luton Town recently. They were in the Premier League in 2023/24, got relegated to the Championship, and then immediately got relegated again to League One in 2025.
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It’s a nightmare scenario. One minute you're playing at Anfield, the next you're scouting League Two strikers for a Tuesday night away game in January.
The gap between the top and the bottom of the Championship is widening. Financial Fair Play (or Profit and Sustainability Rules, as they love to call them now) means teams like Sheffield Wednesday or Reading have faced points deductions in the past. If you start a season with -6 or -12 points, you're basically starting the race with your shoelaces tied together.
Actionable Survival Guide for Fans
If your team is currently hovering around that 22nd spot, here is how you should be reading the table:
- Ignore the games in hand: Points on the board are always better than "potential" points. Pressure does weird things to players in March and April.
- Watch the Goal Difference: If you're tied with a rival, having a -10 GD compared to their -25 is effectively worth an extra point.
- The 12-Win Rule: Historically, if you can scrape together 12 wins, you're almost certainly going to stay up, regardless of how many draws or losses you have.
- Home Form is King: You rarely see a team stay up by winning away. You have to make your home stadium a place where opponents hate to visit.
The Championship is a marathon, but the relegation zone is a sprint through a minefield. Knowing how many teams get relegated from Championship (three, always three) is just the baseline. Understanding the desperation, the math, and the points required is what actually helps you survive the season without losing your mind.
Check your team's remaining fixtures. If they have to play the top six in the final month, you better hope they've hit that 50-point mark before April starts.
Next Steps for the 2025/26 Season:
Keep a close eye on the EFL’s official "Profit and Sustainability" rulings. Often, the teams that get relegated aren't the ones who played the worst, but the ones who managed their finances the poorest. One 6-point deduction is often the difference between a mid-table finish and a trip to League One. Check the current live standings and filter by "Form" over the last 5 games to see who is actually sleepwalking into the drop zone.