Wembley Stadium will play host to a gigantic football match on May 24, 2025.
Indeed, Sheffield United and Sunderland will lock horns in the Championship playoff final to determine the third and final team to earn promotion to the Premier League for the 2025-26 campaign.
Leeds United and Burnley gained automatic promotion to England’s top flight, and the duo will be joined by Sheffield United or Sunderland, with the pair preparing to go to battle in the lucrative contest.
Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at the final of the Championship playoffs, including how much it is worth to the victorious side and previous winners of the fixture.
Who will face off in 2025 Championship playoff final?
The contest will pit Sheffield United and Sunderland against each other in a one-off final.
Sheffield United finished third in the 2024-25 Championship table, boasting a record of 28 wins, eight draws and 10 defeats from their 46 matches to claim 92 points, which left them eight points off second-placed Burnley.
The Blades finished 16 points ahead of fourth-placed Sunderland, who finished their league season with a record of 21 wins, 13 draws and 12 defeats to collect 76 points, seven points ahead of fifth-placed Coventry City.
Sheffield United were dominant against Bristol City in the semi-finals of the playoffs, winning 3-0 away before triumphing 3-0 at Bramall Lane, running out 6-0 aggregate winners to comfortably progress to the final.
Sunderland, meanwhile, were involved in a tight two-legged contest with Coventry; the first leg finished 2-1 to Sunderland, before the Black Cats scored a last-gasp leveller in the second leg to make it 3-2 on aggregate and eliminate Frank Lampard‘s side in dramatic circumstances.
Sheffield United have faced Sunderland on 147 occasions throughout history, and it is the latter that lead the head-to-head record, recording 67 wins to Sheffield United’s 54, drawing 26 times in the process.
Sunderland recorded a 2-1 victory when the pair met at the Stadium of Light in January 2025, while it was 1-0 to Sheffield United in their contest at Bramall Lane in the first half of the 2024-25 campaign.
How much is promotion to the Premier League worth?
The winners of the 2025 Championship final between Sheffield United and Sunderland will allegedly receive a minimum £220m in extra income.
The victorious team will receive a share of the new domestic television deal, which is worth close to £7bn over four seasons, while they will also receive centralised commercial fees, facility fees and merit payments.
The team which triumphs will also be entitled to potential parachute payments if they are relegated back to the Championship, while both will receive extra income from the gate receipts from the final, which is worth in the region of £2m.
According to BBC Sport, the 2024 Championship playoff final was worth £140m, showing the huge increase this season, which makes it an even more important match for Sheffield United and Sunderland.
Often branded ‘the richest game in football’, next season’s final is expected to be worth even more, and second-tier clubs will already be thinking about securing a lucrative promotion to the top flight for the 2026-27 campaign.
Championship playoff winners
1987 – Charlton
1988 – Middlesbrough
1989 – Crystal Palace
1990 – Swindon Town
1991 – Notts County
1992 – Blackburn Rovers
1993 – Swindon Town
1994 – Leicester City
1995 – Bolton Wanderers
1996 – Leicester
1997 – Crystal Palace
1998 – Charlton Athletic
1999 – Watford
2000 – Ipswich Town
2001 – Bolton Wanderers
2002 – Birmingham City
2003 – Wolverhampton Wanderers
2004 – Crystal Palace
2005 – West Ham Unoited
2006 – Watford
2007 – Derby County
2008 – Hull City
2009 – Burnley
2010 – Blackpool
2011 – Swansea City
2012 – West Ham United
2013 – Crystal Palace
2014 – Queens Park Rangers
2015 – Norwich City
2016 – Hull City
2017 – Huddersfield
2018 – Fulham
2019 – Aston Villa
2020 – Fulham
2021 – Brentford
2022 – Nottingham Forest
2023 – Luton Town
2024 – Southampton
Crystal Palace are the most successful team in Championship playoff finals, having triumphed on four occasions, while no other club has posted more than two victories in the showpiece event.
