With the relevant Play-Off Finals finished for another season, the complete list of teams the Swans will face during the 2025-2026 Championship campaign is known.
Having followed the club through promotion, relegation, and everything in between, I can’t help but feel a familiar mixture of anticipation and trepidation as I contemplate the season ahead. The Championship remains one of football’s great levelers, as each week, the league table can be turned on its head. Hopefully the Swans can build on last season’s mid-table finish and establish ourselves as genuine promotion contenders.
The relegation of Leicester City, Ipswich Town, and Southampton adds considerable weight to what was already a brutally competitive division. Leicester’s return is particularly significant – their resources and infrastructure remain formidable despite their Premier League struggles. The King Power Stadium will be a daunting venue, and their squad, even after inevitable departures, will likely contain players of genuine quality.
Ipswich’s brief Premier League sojourn may have ended disappointingly, but Kieran McKenna has built something substantial at Portman Road. Their rapid ascent through the divisions wasn’t a fluke, and they’ll be desperate to prove their top-flight relegation was merely a temporary setback.
Southampton, meanwhile, bring decades of Premier League experience and a well-established academy system. It is hard to quantify the impact appointing Will Still as the Saints new manager will have.
These three clubs will undoubtedly be among the promotion favourites, which makes our task all the more challenging. The financial disparity between relegated Premier League sides and established Championship clubs like ourselves continues to be one of the division’s most frustrating inequalities.
Sheffield United’s agonising play-off final defeat against Sunderland, will leave them with a huge point to prove. Bramall Lane has always been a fortress, and Chris Wilder’s pragmatic approach has served them well over the years. They’ll be among the favourites again.
The arrival of Wrexham is perhaps the most intriguing storyline of the season. Their Hollywood-backed rise has captured imaginations worldwide, but for us Welsh football fans, it represents something more profound. The potential for a new Welsh derby, played at Championship level, is genuinely exciting.
The Racecourse Ground – it will also be that to me – will be an atmospheric cauldron when we visit, and I suspect many of us will make the journey north with mixed feelings – proud of Welsh football’s representation, yet determined to show them what proper Championship football looks like. It will also be the first time the sides have met in a league fixture since March 2003, when they drew 0-0 at the Vetch Field in front of a crowd of 6,463 in Football League Division Three.
Charlton Athletic’s return brings back memories of their Premier League days and that remarkable play-off final victory at Wembley in 1998. The Valley has always been a ground with character, and their supporters have remained loyal through some incredibly testing times. They’ve earned their place back in the Championship through persistence and proper football governance. The side’s last met in the league during the 2019/2020 season, when the Swans beat the Addicks 1-0 in a Championship clash at the Liberty Stadium in January 2020.
The 2025-2026 EFL Championship
So hear is the full list of teams the Swans will come up against:
Birmingham City 🔺
Blackburn Rovers
Bristol City
Charlton Athletic 🔺
Coventry City
Derby County
Hull City
Ipswich Town 🔻
Leicester City 🔻
Middlesbrough
Millwall
Norwich City
Oxford United
Portsmouth
Preston North End
Queens Park Rangers
Sheffield United
Sheffield Wednesday
Southampton 🔻
Stoke City
Watford
West Bromwich Albion
Wrexham 🔺
Ultimately, the Swans squad retention and new signings will ultimately determine our fate, but there’s something uniquely special about Championship football. It’s honest, competitive, and utterly unpredictable. For all its challenges, it remains proper football – and after five decades of supporting this club, I wouldn’t have it any other way.