EFL League One facts for kids

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EFL League One

Founded	2004; 21 years ago (2004) 1992–2004 (as Division Two) 1958–1992 (as Division Three) 1921–1958 (as Division Three North/South) 1920–1921 (as Division Three)
Country	England
Number of teams	24
Level on pyramid	3
Promotion to	EFL Championship
Relegation to	EFL League Two
Domestic cup(s)	FA Cup
League cup(s)	EFL Cup EFL Trophy
International cup(s)	UEFA Europa League (via FA Cup) UEFA Europa Conference League (via EFL Cup)
Current champions	Portsmouth 1st League One title 4th 3rd tier title (2023–24)
Most championships	Plymouth Argyle (5 titles total) Wigan Athletic (3 League One titles)
TV partners	List of broadcasters

The English Football League One, often called League One, is a super exciting football league in England. It's the third-highest level of football in the country. Think of it like a stepping stone: teams here are trying their best to move up to the next level, the EFL Championship, and eventually, the top league, the Premier League!

This league started in 2004. Before that, it had different names like the Football League Second Division. Many famous clubs have played in League One. For example, eight teams currently in this division have played in the Premier League before. These include Barnsley, Birmingham City, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Charlton Athletic, Huddersfield Town, Reading, and Wigan Athletic.

How the League Works
- Points and Standings
- Moving Up and Down
Current Members
League One Champions and Promoted Teams
Play-off Finals
Top Goal Scorers
Fan Attendance
Financial Rules
See also

How the League Works

There are 24 football clubs in League One. Each team plays every other team twice during the season. That means they play one game at home and one game away.

Points and Standings

If a team wins a game, they get 3 points.
If a game is a draw (tied score), both teams get 1 point.
If a team loses, they get 0 points.

At the end of the season, teams are ranked in a table. The team with the most points is at the top! If teams have the same points, other things like how many goals they scored or stopped (goal difference) help decide who ranks higher.

Moving Up and Down

Football is all about moving up or down!

The top two teams in League One automatically get promoted to the EFL Championship.
Teams that finish from 3rd to 6th place play in special games called play-offs. The winner of these play-offs also gets promoted to the Championship!
The three teams that finish at the bottom of the Championship come down to League One.

At the same time, the four teams that finish at the very bottom of League One get relegated (moved down) to EFL League Two.
The top teams from League Two then move up to League One. It's a constant cycle of teams trying to climb the ladder!

Current Members

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Barnsley	Barnsley	Oakwell	23,287
Birmingham City	Birmingham	St Andrew's	29,409
Blackpool	Blackpool	Bloomfield Road	16,616
Bolton Wanderers	Horwich	Toughsheet Community Stadium	28,723
Bristol Rovers	Bristol	Memorial Stadium	9,832
Burton Albion	Burton upon Trent	Pirelli Stadium	6,912
Cambridge United	Cambridge	Abbey Stadium	8,127
Charlton Athletic	London (Charlton)	The Valley	27,111
Crawley Town	Crawley	Broadfield Stadium	5,996
Exeter City	Exeter	St. James Park	8,720
Huddersfield Town	Huddersfield	Kirklees Stadium	24,121
Leyton Orient	London (Leyton)	Brisbane Road	9,271
Lincoln City	Lincoln	Sincil Bank	10,669
Mansfield Town	Mansfield	Field Mill	9,186
Northampton Town	Northampton	Sixfields Stadium	7,798
Peterborough United	Peterborough	London Road Stadium	13,511
Reading	Reading	Madejski Stadium	24,161
Rotherham United	Rotherham	New York Stadium	12,021
Shrewsbury Town	Shrewsbury	New Meadow	9,875
Stevenage	Stevenage	Broadhall Way	7,800
Stockport County	Stockport	Edgeley Park	10,852
Wigan Athletic	Wigan	Brick Community Stadium	25,138
Wrexham	Wrexham	Racecourse Ground	12,600
Wycombe Wanderers	High Wycombe	Adams Park	10,137

League One Champions and Promoted Teams

This table shows the teams that have been promoted from League One each season. The "Winner" is the team that finished first. The "Runner-up" finished second. The "Play-off Winner" is the team that won the special play-off games to get promoted.

Season	Winner	Runner-up	Promoted Play-off Winner (Position)
2004–05	Luton Town	Hull City	Sheffield Wednesday (5th)
2005–06	Southend United	Colchester United	Barnsley (5th)
2006–07	Scunthorpe United	Bristol City	Blackpool (3rd)
2007–08	Swansea City	Nottingham Forest	Doncaster Rovers (3rd)
2008–09	Leicester City	Peterborough United	Scunthorpe United (6th)
2009–10	Norwich City	Leeds United	Millwall (3rd)
2010–11	Brighton & Hove Albion	Southampton	Peterborough United (4th)
2011–12	Charlton Athletic	Sheffield Wednesday	Huddersfield Town (4th)
2012–13	Doncaster Rovers	AFC Bournemouth	Yeovil Town (4th)
2013–14	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Brentford	Rotherham United (4th)
2014–15	Bristol City	Milton Keynes Dons	Preston North End (3rd)
2015–16	Wigan Athletic	Burton Albion	Barnsley (6th)
2016–17	Sheffield United	Bolton Wanderers	Millwall (6th)
2017–18	Wigan Athletic	Blackburn Rovers	Rotherham United (4th)
2018–19	Luton Town	Barnsley	Charlton Athletic (3rd)
2019–20	Coventry City	Rotherham United	Wycombe Wanderers (3rd)
2020–21	Hull City	Peterborough United	Blackpool (3rd)
2021–22	Wigan Athletic	Rotherham United	Sunderland (5th)
2022–23	Plymouth Argyle	Ipswich Town	Sheffield Wednesday (3rd)
2023–24	Portsmouth	Derby County	Oxford United (5th)

For past winners at this level before 2004, see List of winners of the EFL League One and predecessors.

Play-off Finals

The play-offs are exciting games at the end of the season. Teams finishing 3rd to 6th play against each other to win the last promotion spot. Here are the results of the final matches:

Season	Final
2004–05	Sheffield Wednesday 4–2 Hartlepool United (a.e.t.)
2005–06	Barnsley 2–2 Swansea City (Barnsley won 4–3 on penalties, a.e.t.)
2006–07	Blackpool 2–0 Yeovil Town
2007–08	Leeds United 0–1 Doncaster Rovers
2008–09	Scunthorpe United 3–2 Millwall
2009–10	Millwall 1–0 Swindon Town
2010–11	Huddersfield Town 0–3 Peterborough United
2011–12	Huddersfield Town 0–0 Sheffield United (Huddersfield won 8–7 on penalties, a.e.t.)
2012–13	Brentford 1–2 Yeovil Town
2013–14	Leyton Orient 2–2 Rotherham United (Rotherham won 4–3 on penalties, a.e.t.)
2014–15	Preston North End 4–0 Swindon Town
2015–16	Barnsley 3–1 Millwall
2016–17	Bradford City 0–1 Millwall
2017–18	Rotherham United 2–1 Shrewsbury Town (a.e.t.)
2018–19	Charlton Athletic 2–1 Sunderland
2019–20	Oxford United 1–2 Wycombe Wanderers
2020–21	Blackpool 2–1 Lincoln City
2021–22	Sunderland 2–0 Wycombe Wanderers
2022–23	Sheffield Wednesday 1–0 Barnsley (a.e.t.)
2023–24	Bolton Wanderers 0–2 Oxford United

Top Goal Scorers

These are the players who scored the most goals in League One each season.

Season	Top scorer(s)	Club(s)	Goals
2004–05	Stuart Elliott	Hull City	27
2004–05	Dean Windass	Bradford City	27
2005–06	Freddy Eastwood	Southend United	23
2005–06	Billy Sharp	Scunthorpe United	23
2006–07	Billy Sharp	Scunthorpe United	30
2007–08	Jason Scotland	Swansea City	24
2008–09	Simon Cox	Swindon Town	29
2008–09	Rickie Lambert	Bristol Rovers	29
2009–10	Rickie Lambert	Southampton	30
2010–11	Craig Mackail-Smith	Peterborough United	27
2011–12	Jordan Rhodes	Huddersfield Town	36
2012–13	Paddy Madden	Yeovil Town	22
2013–14	Sam Baldock	Bristol City	24
2014–15	Joe Garner	Preston North End	26
2015–16	Will Grigg	Wigan Athletic	25
2016–17	Billy Sharp	Sheffield United	30
2017–18	Jack Marriott	Peterborough United	27
2018–19	James Collins	Luton Town	25
2019–20	Ivan Toney	Peterborough United	24
2020–21	Jonson Clarke-Harris	Peterborough United	31
2021–22	Will Keane	Wigan Athletic	26
2022–23	Conor Chaplin	Ipswich Town	26
2022–23	Jonson Clarke-Harris	Peterborough United	26
2023-24	Alfie May	Charlton Athletic	23

In 35 games. Season was shorter because of a global health situation.

Fan Attendance

Average attendances in EFL League One over the years.

League One is super popular! It's the most-watched third-tier sports league in the world. In the 2022–23 season, over 5.3 million fans watched games. That's an average of 10,613 people at each match! This makes it one of the top ten most-watched leagues in Europe.

The highest average attendance for a single club was Sunderland in the 2018–19 season, with 32,157 fans per game. They also set a record for a single game that season, when 46,039 people watched them play against Bradford City.

Season	League Average Attendance	Highest Average		Highest Attendance
Season	League Average Attendance	Club	Attendance	Game	Attendance
2004–05	7,732	Sheffield Wednesday	23,100	Sheffield Wednesday vs Bristol City	28,798
2005–06	7,578	Nottingham Forest	20,257	Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth	26,847
2006–07	7,486	Nottingham Forest	20,627	Nottingham Forest v Rotherham United	27,875
2007–08	7,985	Leeds United	26,546	Leeds United v Gillingham	38,256
2008–09	7,551	Leeds United	23,639
2009–10	9,136	Leeds United	24,818	Leeds United v Bristol Rovers	38,234
2010–11	7,519	Southampton	22,161	Southampton v Walsall	31,653
2011–12	7,358	Sheffield Wednesday	21,336	Sheffield Wednesday v Wycombe Wanderers	38,082
2012–13	6,335	Sheffield United	18,612	Sheffield United v Brentford	23,431
2013–14	7,476	Wolverhampton Wanderers	20,879	Wolverhampton Wanderers v Rotherham United	30,110
2014–15	7,037	Sheffield United	19,805	Coventry City v Gillingham	27,306
2015–16	7,163	Sheffield United	19,803	Sheffield United v Bradford City	24,777
2016–17	7,933	Sheffield United	21,892	Sheffield United v Chesterfield	31,003
2017–18	7,805	Bradford City	19,787	Blackburn Rovers v Oxford United	27,600
2018–19	8,741	Sunderland	32,157	Sunderland v Bradford City	46,039
2019–20	8,802	Sunderland	30,118	Sunderland v Bolton Wanderers	33,821
2020–21	No attendances because of a global health situation
2021–22	9,953	Sunderland	30,847	Sunderland v Doncaster Rovers	38,395
2022–23	10,613	Derby County	27,259	Sheffield Wednesday v Plymouth Argyle	33,442
2023–24	9,711	Derby County	27,278	Derby County v Bolton Wanderers	32,538

Financial Rules

To make sure clubs are managed well, League One has rules about how much money teams can spend on player salaries. This is called the Salary Cost Management Protocol. Clubs can spend a maximum of 60% of their income on player wages. If a club breaks this rule, they might not be allowed to buy new players for a while. This helps keep the league fair and financially healthy for all teams.