All 24 EFL Championship clubs ranked by how painful they are to support | OneFootball

A ranking of the 24 clubs in the 2026-27 Championship season by how painful they are to follow for their supporters.

Clubs up and down the EFL can send their supporters through the ringer with periods of poor form, rollercoaster rides throughout a season or even genuine existential threats to the club that they love so deeply.

The Championship is a league like no other with the riches and notoriety of the Premier League, the most watched league in the world, within the grasp of all 24 clubs – and that can lead to frustration and desperation both on and off the pitch.

Sensibly run clubs that work within their means can often stagnate and leave supporters disillusioned while those that opt to shell out a bit more money to chase the dream can see their club plummet, or even come close to extinction.

The second-tier of English football is known for its wild ride and the highs and adrenaline that can be given to fans – but there are plenty of examples whereby those thrills and replaced by sheer pain and, perhaps worse in a football context, apathy.

This is an extremely subjective and up-for-debate ranking of the 24 clubs in the Championship by how painful they are to support.

24th least painful: Lincoln City

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Perhaps fairly easily the least painful team to support in the Championship right now is last season’s League One winners Lincoln City, who are already showing their abilities to more than compete in the second-tier.

Even despite the departure of Michael Skubala to Bristol City, The Imps have remained impressive both on and off the pitch, building on their first promotion to the second-tier since the 1950s.

23rd: Wrexham

The Hollywood story of Wrexham, rising from non-league to the cusp of the second-tier play-off places in four successive seasons, has indeed been bankrolled by Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.

Success can change the expectations of a club and the expectation for Wrexham is now to become a genuine promotion challenger, which can bring about some pain – but it would be ridiculous to suggest it is anything other than mesmeric and joyful to be a Wrexham supporter at the moment, especially in comparison to their relatively recent past.

22nd: Millwall

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Millwall suffered heartache at the back end of last season as they narrowly missed out on promotion, having finished third on the final day before a play-off semi-final defeat to eventual play-off winners Hull City.

The Lions are experiencing a glut of injuries and an inconsistent start to this season but they continue to punch above their weight with a well-run operation off the pitch and real belief on it.

21st: Birmingham City

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Like Wrexham, big spending Birmingham City got themselves League One promotion in the 2024-25 season and The Blues don’t intend to stick around in the second-tier for too long either.

They have some irritations with inconsistency on the pitch, often in-game let alone over the course of a season like last year, but they upwardly mobile with the financial backing to support it.

20th: Derby County

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Derby County are another side to have relatively recently gained promotion back to the second-tier, having done so as League One runners’ up in the 2023-24 campaign.

The Rams’ supporters endured plenty of play-off heartache in the 2010s and then financial disarray at the start of this decade but a local man in David Clowes in charge of the club with a former player leading the side in John Eustace leaves Derby in a positive spot, despite their poor start to this season – but it is only a start, having missed out on the top six and the play-off places on the final day of last season.

19th: Bolton Wanderers

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Like Derby, Bolton have had their fair share of financial mismanagement, coming close to EFL expulsion in 2019 as they fell from the Premier League to League Two in less than a decade but things have been sorting themselves off the pitch for a while and they are now back in the Championship, too.

The Trotters won three of their opening eight Championship games before the international break. If they beat Stoke City upon their return from the break then it’ll be the first time they have won four of their opening nine games in the top two divisions since they finished seventh in the 2006-07 Premier League campaign.

18th: Portsmouth

Another club to have come up to the second-tier in the last few years, finishing above Derby in the 2023-24 League One season as champions, would be Portsmouth.

Having spent two seasons re-establishing themselves back in the Championship, Pompey began to send a bit more money over the summer as they once again look to kick on after their own financial turmoil of the last 15 to 20 years or so.

17th: Swansea City

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More stable than those previously mentioned thus far and next on our list is a promotion hopeful this time around, Swansea City, who have risked veering into a malaise in recent years but now appear back and ready go to again in the second-tier.

With the help of Jamestown Analytics, Swansea have constructed an impressive squad with an impressive coach in Vitor Matos and themselves have the financial backing to leave Swansea supporters surely very excited about the future.

16th: Bristol City

One of the most well-run clubs in the EFL, Bristol City supporters would be forgiven for becoming frustrated with their mid-table stagnation in the Championship, albeit they have flirted with promotion having reached the play-offs in the 2024-25 campaign.

Again, this season has seen them spend reasonably heavily on the best League One striking talents available in Lorent Tolaj and Dom Ballard. Inertia could again set in but The Robins’ fans have little to moan about in comparison to some crisis clubs.

15th: Charlton Athletic

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Charlton Athletic returned to the Championship via the League One play-offs in the 2024-25 campaign and they were never in any real danger despite a 21st placed finish last season.

It has been painful to be an Addicks fan in recent memory, albeit not to the extent of some of the others previously mentioned, and they are now on a decent footing to kick on – albeit perhaps survival is again the goal this time around.