The results of a member club vote proposing to extending the Champions play-offs to six team have been revealed.
Tom Watson of Sunderland with The Sky Bet Championship Play-Off trophy(Image: Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
The Championship play-offs will be extended to include six teams instead of four from next season, after a member club vote passed through the proposal.
Starting from the 2026-27 season, the end-of-season promotion decider will mirror the same format currently used in the National League.
As is currently the case, the top two sides in the Championship table at the end of the season will earn automatic promotion to the Premier League, but the teams finishing third to eighth will now slug it out for the third and final promotion spot.
An EFL statement said: “The decision is intended to increase the number of competitive fixtures during the closing stages of the campaign, while also giving two additional clubs the opportunity to reach the playoff final at Wembley Stadium and progress to the Premier League.”
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Under the incoming rules, the teams that finishing the regular season third and fourth will automatically progress to a play-off semi-final where they will await the eventual winners of two one-legged quarter-finals, contested between fifth and eighth (with fifth having home advanted) and sixth and seventh (with sixth having home advantage).
The semi-finals will still be two-legged affairs, with the final at Wembley. The proposal has been approve by the EFL board and Football Association.
EFL chief executive, Trevor Birch, said: “We are confident this change will further strengthen the Championship as a competition and give more clubs and their supporters a genuine opportunity of achieving promotion.”
Hull City are currently are currently fifth in the Championship table and remain on course to qualify for this season’s promotion play-offs. Should they fall short in their quest, next season they could finish as low as eighth and still have a chance of promotion to the Premier League.
The Tigers have 11 matches left to play, starting with a home match against play-off rivals Millwall on Saturday.
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