1. About what percent of the time is League Championship won by a club that was in the Premier League the previous season? 2. About what percent of clubs relegated to League Championship earn promotion back to the Premier League that season? 3. When was the last time (if ever) two clubs that were both in the Premier League the previous season met in a promotion playoff after the League Championship season? 4. When was the last time the format of promotion from League Championship to the Premier League changed? 5. When was the last time the number of clubs in League Championship changed?
It all depends, mainly on whether you feel the formation of the premier league was the Year Zero that SKY's Khmer Rouge seem to insist it is. It'd be a very sad person who knew those exact stats of the top of his head, but for the past few years about half of the clubs that go up come straight back down. Go back 20 years or so, and it's more like one in 10. Promotion to the premiership last changed in 1994/5, when it reduced from 22 teams to 20, with the championship going to 24 from 22. Only 1 club was automatically promoted, with 2-5 going into the play-offs, making it the only time the club finishing 2nd hasn't gone up automatically since automatic promotion began around 100 years previously. Can't think why I remember that so clearly. http://www.rsssf.com/engpaul/FLA/league.html ...for all your historical needs.