Burnley
Blackburn Rovers
Coventry City
Derby County
Leeds United
Luton Town
Middlesbrough
Millwall
Norwich City
Portsmouth
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield United
QPR
Birmingham City are back in the Championship for the 2025/26 season and could match a record in the forthcoming campaign.
Birmingham City dominated League One, setting an EFL points record in the process with 111 secured across 46 league fixtures.
Birmingham’s success wasn’t a surprise to some, given the players they had and the money they spent.
The Blues will now be back in the second tier of English football later this year, with big things expected of them.
Birmingham are backed for a play-off finish in the Championship and maybe even promotion by one pundit.
Should that happen, it would see the Midlands outfit match a long-standing second-tier record.
- READ MORE: Nine-goal Birmingham City star and ‘really confident’ player could leave for free after 25/26 season
Birmingham City can match Leicester City’s second-tier record
The Championship was rebranded in the early 2000s, but the competition has been around a lot longer than that.
In fact, Birmingham first won England’s second division all the way back in 1892.
All told, they have won promotion out of the league a staggering 12 times throughout history, winning the title on four occasions.
It is a remarkable achievement and one that is currently only bettered by the recently relegated Leicester City, who have been promoted to the top flight 13 times.
So, should Birmingham go back-to-back in 2025/26, they would match the Foxes’ record unless they also win promotion to the Premier League.
| Times promoted to English top flight | Team(s) |
| 13 | Leicester City |
| 12 | Birmingham City |
| 11 | Manchester City |
| 10 | West Bromwich Albion |
| 9 | Bolton Wanderers, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Sheffield United, Burnley |
| 8 | Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland |
| 7 | Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Derby County, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers |
Tom Wagner on Birmingham City reaching the Premier League
Championship clubs fear Birmingham already before a ball has been kicked in the 2025/26 season.
The Blues are expected to be among the most aggressive teams in the division when it comes to transfers.
And Tom Wagner has already spoken about Birmingham reaching the Premier League, outlining what they must do to achieve the goal.
He said last month: “There’s only one place to go and our ultimate objective is to get to the Premier League.
“I always say if you can’t say it you can’t do it and so our ambition is to get to the Premier League.
“We’ve got to establish a culture of winning, we’ve got to get all the processes in place, we’ve got find the right commercial process and generate the revenue, and then we’ve got to get all these fans engaged on a regular basis.
“A lot of things people say we couldn’t do, one was we couldn’t fill a 60,000-seater stadium, well we could have filled Wembley if we had the opportunity today, I think that speaks volumes for how big this club is and I think it’s good for English football that big clubs are competing at the highest level.”