The Scottish Championship, known as the
cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the
Scottish Professional Football League
The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As ...
, the league competition for men's professional
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
clubs in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. The Scottish Championship was established in July 2013, after the Scottish Professional Football League was formed by a merger of the
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...
and
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...
.
Format
Teams receive
three points for a win
Three points for a win is a standard used in many sports leagues and group tournaments, especially in association football, in which three points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points awarded to the losing team. If the game is ...
and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then
goal difference
Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...
, and then goals scored. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned
league champion. If points are equal, the goal difference determines the winner. If this still does not result in a winner, the tied teams must take part in a playoff game at a neutral venue to determine the final placings.
Promotion and relegation
The champions are directly promoted to the
Scottish Premiership
The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...
, swapping places with the bottom club of the Premiership.
The clubs finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th then enter the two-legged Premiership play-off. The 3rd-placed club plays the 4th-placed club, with the winner then playing the 2nd-placed club. The winner of that game then plays against the 11th-placed Premiership club. If the Championship play-off winner prevails, the club is promoted and the Premiership club is relegated; otherwise, the Premiership club remains in its league while the Championship club is not promoted.
For promotion and relegation, the Championship play-off system closely mirrors its Premiership counterpart—the bottom-ranked club in the Championship is automatically relegated while the 9th-placed club undergoes a play-off with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed clubs 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 ...
.
Teams
Listed below are all the teams competing in the
2022–23 Scottish Championship
The 2022–23 Scottish Championship (known as cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the tenth season of the Scottish Championship, the second tier of Scottish football.
Ten teams contest the league: Arbroath, Ayr United, Cove Rangers, ...
season, with details of the first season they entered the second tier; the first season of their current spell in the second tier; and the last time they won the second tier.
Stadiums
Statistics
Championships
Records and awards
; Biggest home win: Heart of Midlothian 10–0 Cowdenbeath, 28 February 2015
; Biggest away win: Dumbarton 0–6 Rangers, 2 January 2016;
; Most points in a season: 91; Heart of Midlothian, 2014–15
; Fewest points in a season: 4; Brechin City, 2017–18
; Fewest goals scored in a season: 20; Brechin City, 2017–18
; Most goals scored in a season: 96; Heart of Midlothian, 2014–15
; Most goals conceded in a season: 90; Brechin City, 2017–18
; Fewest goals conceded in a season: 25; Hibernian, 2016–17
[Dundee United conceded 22 goals in the curtailed 2019–20 season (28 games), and Heart of Midlothian conceded 24 goals in the shortened 2020–21 season (27 games).]
; Highest attendance: 50,349; Rangers 1–1 Alloa Athletic, 23 April 2016
; Lowest attendance: 318; Cowdenbeath 3–0 Greenock Morton, 25 March 2014
Top goalscorers
''Italics'' denotes players still playing professional football,
Bold denotes players still playing in the Scottish Chamionpship.
Broadcasting rights
Notes
References
External links
Scottish Championship – Official website
{{Scottish Championship
2013 establishments in Scotland
2
Professional sports leagues in Scotland
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
Second level football leagues in Europe
Sports leagues established in 2013