News

Four Championship teams in promotion playoffs

8 May 2023

Coventry, Luton, Middlesbrough and Sunderland will battle for a Premier League place in 2023/24

The final promotion spot for a place in the Premier League has been narrowed down to four contenders after the final round of matches of the Championship season.

With Burnley and Sheffield United already confirming their places in the top flight for the 2023/24 campaign through finishing in the top two, only one more team can join them.

The winners of the two-legged semi-final ties, will face each other in the playoff final at Wembley on 27 May.

Sunderland sneaked into the top six on the final day with a 3-0 win at Preston North End and will face Luton Town. The Black Cats were last in the Premier League in 2016/17 and are looking for back-to-back promotions, after falling as far as League One.

Luton, who finished third, are aiming to earn promotion to the Premier League for the first time.

They would become the 51st different club to play in the competition and the first to come from non-league, where they were only 10 years ago. The Hatters were in the First Division for its last season and had approved the formation of the Premier League but had never got to play in it.

A duel that could prove decisive in that match will be between Sunderland winger Amad Diallo, on loan from Manchester United (pictured top, far right) and Luton striker Carlton Morris (pictured top, far left), who has 20 goals in the league this season.

Two former Premier League sides play in the other semi-final.

Coventry City, who were last in the Premier League in 2000/01, take on Middlesbrough, who are looking to end a six-year exile.

That match will see the Championship’s two top scorers go head-to-head, with Middlesbrough’s Chuba Akpom (pictured top, centre left) netting an impressive 28 goals and Coventry’s Viktor Gyokeres (pictured top, centre right) not far behind on 21.