About Scottish Championship
Scottish Championship History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage
The Scottish Championship is Scotland's second-division men’s football league, sitting directly beneath only the Scottish Premiership in the pyramid. Managed by the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), it was founded in 2013 following the merger of the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League.
The Championship operates on a summer-to-spring schedule, typically starting in August and concluding in May. It consists of 10 teams, each playing one another four times throughout the season — twice in the first half (once at home and once away) and twice again in the second half.
This division features promotion and relegation, with the top team being crowned champion and automatically promoted to the Scottish Premiership, the nation’s top-flight division. Teams finishing second to fourth qualify for a two-legged Premiership playoff. The third and fourth-place teams face each other in the semifinals, with the winner meeting the Championship runner-up in the final. The final's winner then locks horns with the 11th-placed team in the Premiership in a two-legged decider for promotion to the top flight.
Conversely, the bottom-ranked Scottish Championship team is automatically relegated to League One, Scotland’s third-tier men’s football league. The ninth-placed club enters a playoff with the teams finishing second to fourth in League One, similar to the Championship’s promotion playoff.
Dundee-based outfits Dundee Football Club and Dundee United have succeeded in this competition, winning the Scottish Championship title twice in the league’s first 11 seasons. Scottish powerhouse Rangers also claimed the Scottish Championship title in the 2015-16 season during their four-year absence from the top flight due to financial difficulties.
