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2020–21 EFL Championship

17th season of the Football League Championship From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The 2020–21 EFL Championship (referred to as the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the 5th season of the EFL Championship under its current title and the 29th season under its current league division format.

Quick facts Season, Dates ...
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Team changes

The following teams have changed division since the 2019–20 season:

  1. Wigan Athletic were deducted 12 points by the EFL for entering administration. The club appealed the decision, but it was confirmed on 4 August 2020 that the appeal was unsuccessful. Therefore Wigan were not reprieved from relegation.[4][5]
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Stadiums

Greater London Championship football clubs


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Attendances

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As with the end to the previous season, the season was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in games being played behind closed doors. However, on 19 September 2020, two matches in the division, between Norwich City and Preston North End at Carrow Road, and between Middlesbrough and Bournemouth at The Riverside Stadium, were held in front of 1,000 spectators, as part of EFL pilots.[6]

This was seen as the beginning of fans gradually returning, but a rapid rise of cases from the end of September (eventually resulting in a second nationwide lockdown in November), led to plans being put on hold.[7]

With the second nationwide lockdown ending on 2 December 2020, it was announced England would return to its previous three tier system, with clubs in Tier 2 allowed to host a maximum of 2,000 spectators.[8] The first of these matches took place on 2 December 2020 itself, although the matches of Luton Town and Wycombe Wanderers were capped at 1,000 spectators, as they had not previously held an EFL pilot event.[9]

On Saturday 5 December 2020, Reading, Millwall, Watford, Norwich City and Brentford all hosted matches in front of the maximum allotted 2,000 spectators permitted, with fans in attendance at Brentford Community Stadium for the very first time.[10]

However, it was then announced that from Wednesday 16 December 2020, that London, parts of Essex and parts of Hertfordshire, would move up to Tier 3, the highest tier of restrictions in England, meaning football clubs in these areas, (for The EFL Championship: Brentford, Millwall, Queens Park Rangers and Watford), would revert to playing behind closed doors without fans, due to a rise in coronavirus cases, following a tier review.[11]

It was then announced that from Saturday, 19 December 2020 that Bedfordshire, Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire would also move into Tier 3, meaning for the EFL Championship that Luton Town, Reading & Wycombe Wanderers would also revert to playing behind closed doors without fans again, as of this date. Conversely, Bristol City, who had previously been unable to host fans, would now be able to allow fans back in, with Bristol being downgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2.[12] As of these updated restrictions, it now meant that only Bournemouth, Bristol City and Norwich City's stadiums would be open to host fans in The EFL Championship.[13] This was reversed on Wednesday 23 December 2020, with Bournemouth the sole team in the division eligible to host fans.[14][15] A week later on 30 December 2020, Tier 2 was removed in England, with mainland England in either Tiers 3 or 4, meaning once again, no clubs could host fans for the foreseeable future.[16] A third national lockdown in January 2021 meant that fans ultimately were barred from matches for the rest of the regular season. Following an easing of restrictions in May 2021, the play-offs were able to take place in front of crowds of up to 20% of a stadium's capacity.

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Personnel and sponsoring

More information Team, Manager ...
  1. ^ Club captain Wayne Rooney retired from playing on 15 January 2021 to manage the club on a permanent basis, having served as interim player-manager since the previous November following the dismissal of Phillip Cocu.
  2. ^ Nottingham Forest and Queens Park Rangers' shirt sponsor was Football Index until 12 March 2021 when they entered administration.[38]
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Managerial changes

More information Team, Outgoing manager ...
  1. Rooney was initially appointed as interim manager until the end of the season, but the move was made permanent on 15 January 2021.
  2. Woodgate was initially caretaker manager, but was then appointed as manager until the end of the season on 21 February 2021.
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League table

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: EFL Official Website
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head results; 5) Wins; 6) Away goals; 7) Penalty points (sec 9.5); 8) 12-point sending off offences[72]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. Sheffield Wednesday received a 12 point deduction for breaching the League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules. This was later reduced to 6 points by an Independent League Arbitration panel.[70][71]
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Play-offs

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Semi-finals Final
        
3 Brentford 0 3 3
6 Bournemouth 1 1 2
3 Brentford 2
4 Swansea City 0
4 Swansea City 1 1 2
5 Barnsley 0 1 1

First leg

More information Bournemouth, 1–0 ...
Attendance: 2,000
Referee: Tim Robinson
More information Barnsley, 0–1 ...
Attendance: 4,000
Referee: Geoff Eltringham

Second leg

More information Brentford, 3–1 ...
More information Swansea City, 1–1 ...

Final

More information Brentford, 2–0 ...
Attendance: 11,689
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Results

More information Home \ Away, BAR ...
Updated to match(es) played on 8 May 2021. Source: "Championship Results". Sky Sports. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.
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Season statistics

Scoring

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Ivan Toney won The Golden Boot for Brentford in his debut season at the club, scoring 33 goals for The Bees, as they won the play–offs to seal promotion to The Premier League, ending a seventy-four year absence from the top flight.

Top scorers

  • 1 Includes 2 goals in The Championship play-offs.
  • 2 Includes 1 goal in The Championship play-offs.

Hat-tricks

More information Player, For ...

Clean sheets

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Freddie Woodman won The Golden Glove this season with 21 clean sheets, as he helped Swansea City reach the play-off final, whilst on loan from Premier League club Newcastle United.
  • 1 Includes 1 clean sheet in The Championship play-offs.

Discipline

Players

Club

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Awards

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Monthly

Annual

More information Award, Winner ...

Championship Team of the season

PFA Championship Team of the Year

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Notes and references

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