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The race for a place in the Premier League reaches its climax on Sunday with eight Championship clubs still in the hunt for promotion.
West Bromwich Albion are all but assured of going up barring a freakish set of results, but Stoke City, Hull City, Bristol City, Watford, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, Wolverhampton and Sheffield United still harbour dreams of joining them.
The rewards for promotion are enormous, with the Championship final playoff at Wembley Stadium on May 24 representing the biggest financial prize in world club soccer, worth around STG60 million ($A127.16 million).
Paul Rawnsley, the director of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, detailed the financial windfall.
“The financial prize for promotion to the Premier League will provide each promoted club with at least STG35 million ($A74.18 million) pounds of additional revenue in 2008-09,” he said.
“In addition, even if a club is relegated after one year at the top level, guaranteed parachute payments of over STG12 million ($A25.43 million) pounds per season will be received for two more seasons.”
In reality, West Brom are up, unless they lose at Queens Park Rangers and Hull win by 13 clear goals at Ipswich.
In effect the race for the second automatic promotion spot is between Stoke and Hull.
Stoke last played in the top flight 23 years ago while Hull have never been in the top division since their formation 104 years ago. Stoke will go up automatically if they get at least a point from their home match against relegation-threatened Leicester City.
Hull will go up automatically if they win at Ipswich and Stoke lose.
Stoke, Hull and Bristol City are all assured of a place in the playoffs at least, with Watford, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Ipswich and Sheffield United still chasing a playoff spot.
At the other end of the table Colchester United and Scunthorpe United are already down, but former Premier League clubs Southampton, Leicester, Coventry City and Sheffield Wednesday could join them if results go against them.
Blackpool, promoted last year, are not yet safe either but should survive.
The race for promotion from the Championship this season has been astonishing, with the lead at the top of the table changing hands 16 times.
With all 24 teams kicking off their final matches at the same time on Sunday, the afternoon is bound to be just as fraught for the fans as it will be for the owners in the directors boxes.
The main priority for all of the promoted clubs will be survival in the top division and avoiding the kind of humiliation suffered by Derby County this season.
Derby beat West Brom in the playoff final last year to win promotion, but have won only once in 36 matches this season and were already doomed to relegation by the end of March.
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