The longest-ever domestic football season came to a close last night and teams all over the country can now look ahead of the upcoming 2020/21 campaign. The 19/20 season came to a close with the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final, which Brentford lost to Fulham. That was more than a year after it started, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and after the 20/21 season should have started.
The new campaign was due to begin at the start of August but will now start in mid-September. More details about the schedule for the season will be released in due course. Brentford will be in the Championship for the new season, which will be the first one in our new home, and will start their seventh campaign in a row in the second tier.
They will be joined by six new opponents for next season, some of whom will be rivals for the first time in many seasons. Coventry City, Rotherham United and Wycombe Wanderers will be coming up from League One while AFC Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich City will be coming down from the Premier League. They will join the 18 teams staying in the Championship.
Norwich return to the second tier after only one year at the top table while Watford and Bournemouth went up together in 2015, stayed five years together and now come down together. Norwich were also promoted with that pair in 2015 but have been down and back up since.
Wycombe will play in the second tier for the first time ever and will play Brentford for the first time since the 2011/12 season. Rotherham return to the second tier after one year while Coventry are back at this level for the first time since 2012. They will, however, do it playing their home games at Birmingham City.
The full list of Championship sides is as follows:
AFC Bournemouth
Watford
Norwich City
BRENTFORD
Cardiff City
Swansea City
Nottingham Forest
Millwall
Preston North End
Derby County
Blackburn Rovers
Bristol City
Queens Park Rangers
Reading
Stoke City
Sheffield Wednesday
Middlesbrough
Huddersfield Town
Luton Town
Birmingham City
Barnsley
Coventry City
Rotherham United
Wycombe Wanderers