The 2015–16 Football League Championship (referred to as the

Sky Bet Sky Betting & Gaming is a British-based gambling company, owned by Flutter Entertainment, with headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire and offices in Sheffield & Solihull. Sky Betting & Gaming consists of five core brands: Sky Bet, Sky Vegas, Sky ...

Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the twelfth season of the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

under its current title and it was the twenty-fourth season under its current league structure. The season started on 7 August 2015, and concluded on 7 May 2016. The fixtures were announced on 17 June 2015.

Teams

A total of 24 teams contested the league, including 18 sides from the 2014–15 season, three relegated from the 2014–15 Premier League and three promoted from the

2014–15 Football League One The 2014–15 Football League One (referred to as the Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons) was the eleventh season of the Football League One under its current title and the twenty-second season under its current league division format. Th ...

Team changes

The following teams changed division after the 2014–15 season. Blackpool were relegated on 6 April after

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

won against

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

secured promotion to the Championship on 14 April after beating

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

6–0.

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

secured promotion to the Premier League on 25 April. Rotherham United won against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

on 28 April to also send

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

and

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

to League One.

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

secured promotion to the Premier League on the final day on 2 May against

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

and won the 2014–15 Football League Championship after Watford slipped up against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

secured promotion to the Championship after beating

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

5–1 after

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

slipped up against

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

. On 9 May,

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

became the first team to be relegated from the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

despite winning away 1–0 against

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

as results on the day went against them. On 10 May,

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

were the second team to be relegated from the Premier League after suffering a 6–0 defeat to

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. On 24 May 2015,

were the 3rd and final team to be relegated from the

, finishing 18th in the

. On the same day

achieved promotion at Wembley via the Play-Offs. On 25 May 2015,

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

won the playoff final, and were promoted to the Premier League.

To Championship

Promoted from

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

Relegated from

From Championship

Relegated to

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

Promoted to

Overview of the teams

Stadia and locations

Personnel and sponsoring

Managerial changes

Rule changes

The 2015–16 season was the last season under the initial Financial Fair Play rules before the switch to the new rules. Changes to the Championship's financial fair play system allow clubs: * Acceptable losses of £2 million during the 2015–16 season (down from £3 million during the 2014–15 season) * Acceptable shareholder equity investment of £3 million during the 2015–16 season. * Sanctions for exceeding the allowances take effect from the set of accounts due to be submitted on 1 December 2015 for the 2014–15 season.

League table

Play-offs

The four teams that finished from third to sixth played off, with the winning team,

, gaining the final promotion spot to the

. In the play-off semi-finals the third placed team played the sixth placed team and the fourth placed team played the fifth placed team. The team that finished in the higher league position played away in the first leg and played at home in the second leg. If the aggregate score was level after both legs, then extra time would be played. If the scores were still level, a penalty shoot-out decided the winner. The away goals rule did apply in the semi-finals. The semi-finals were held on 13–14 and 16–17 May. The winners from the two semi-finals, Hull City and

, played at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

on 28 May 2016 in the play-off final, where Hull City won 1–0. The game is known as the richest game in football as the winning club is guaranteed significantly increased payments e.g. in the 2016-17 season the minimum payment for participating in the Premier League was £95 million. Due to a new TV rights deal, the average payment for a newly promoted club stood at around £100 million.

Results

Season statistics

Top scorers

Clean sheets

Hat-tricks

Discipline

Player

*Most yellow cards 14 **

Kyle McFadzean Kyle John McFadzean (born 28 February 1987) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre back for club Coventry City. Club career Sheffield United Born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, McFadzean was a member of Sheffield United' ...

(Milton Keynes Dons) *Most red cards 2 ** Patrick Bauer (Charlton Athletic) **

Fernando Forestieri Fernando Martin Forestieri (born 15 January 1990) is a professional footballer who plays as a second striker for Malaysia Super League club Johor Darul Ta'zim. Born in Argentina, he is a former Italy youth international. Club career Born in Ros ...

(Sheffield Wednesday) **

Bailey Wright Bailey Colin Wright (born 28 July 1992) is an Australian professional footballer who plays for EFL Championship club Rotherham United, on loan from Sunderland, and the Australia national team. Wright has played his entire senior career in En ...

(Preston North End) **

Lewis Dunk Lewis Carl Dunk (born 21 November 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and is captain of club Brighton & Hove Albion. He has also one appearance for the England national football team. Starting his youth care ...

(Brighton & Hove Albion)

Club

*Most yellow cards 93 **Leeds United *Most red cards 4 ** Milton Keynes Dons ** Bolton Wanderers ** Nottingham Forest

Monthly awards

Attendances

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2015-16 Football League Championship EFL Championship seasons 2015–16 Football League 2 Eng