The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the

Scottish Professional Football League The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As ...

, the league competition for men's professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

clubs in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The Scottish Championship was established in July 2013, after the Scottish Professional Football League was formed by a merger of the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

and

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...

Format

Teams receive

three points for a win Three points for a win is a standard used in many sports leagues and group tournaments, especially in association football, in which three points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points awarded to the losing team. If the game is ...

and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches a ...

, and then goals scored. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned league champion. If points are equal, the goal difference determines the winner. If this still does not result in a winner, the tied teams must take part in a playoff game at a neutral venue to determine the final placings.

Promotion and relegation

The champions are directly promoted to the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

, swapping places with the bottom club of the Premiership. The clubs finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th then enter the two-legged Premiership play-off. The 3rd-placed club plays the 4th-placed club, with the winner then playing the 2nd-placed club. The winner of that game then plays against the 11th-placed Premiership club. If the Championship play-off winner prevails, the club is promoted and the Premiership club is relegated; otherwise, the Premiership club remains in its league while the Championship club is not promoted. For promotion and relegation, the Championship play-off system closely mirrors its Premiership counterpart—the bottom-ranked club in the Championship is automatically relegated while the 9th-placed club undergoes a play-off with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed clubs from

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

Teams

Listed below are all the teams competing in the 2022–23 Scottish Championship season, with details of the first season they entered the second tier; the first season of their current spell in the second tier; and the last time they won the second tier.

Stadiums

Statistics

Championships

Records and awards

; Biggest home win: Heart of Midlothian 10–0 Cowdenbeath, 28 February 2015 ; Biggest away win: Dumbarton 0–6 Rangers, 2 January 2016; ; Most points in a season: 91; Heart of Midlothian, 2014–15 ; Fewest points in a season: 4; Brechin City, 2017–18 ; Fewest goals scored in a season: 20; Brechin City, 2017–18 ; Most goals scored in a season: 96; Heart of Midlothian, 2014–15 ; Most goals conceded in a season: 90; Brechin City, 2017–18 ; Fewest goals conceded in a season: 25; Hibernian, 2016–17Dundee United conceded 22 goals in the curtailed 2019–20 season (28 games), and Heart of Midlothian conceded 24 goals in the shortened 2020–21 season (27 games). ; Highest attendance: 50,349; Rangers 1–1 Alloa Athletic, 23 April 2016 ; Lowest attendance: 318; Cowdenbeath 3–0 Greenock Morton, 25 March 2014

Top goalscorers

''Italics'' denotes players still playing professional football,
Bold denotes players still playing in the Scottish Chamionpship.

Broadcasting rights

Notes

References

External links

Scottish Championship – Official website
{{Scottish Championship 2013 establishments in Scotland 2 Professional sports leagues in Scotland

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

Second level football leagues in Europe Sports leagues established in 2013