All About Promotion: Who’s Coming Up in Europe?

By: Laurie | April 17th, 2008

The other day we talked about the rather depressing subject of relegation. Today though? The sun is shining, so let’s move on to a much happier topic: Promotion. What second-level European teams may be moving up to the top flight?

This is not just a pride issue. It’s a huge money issue. Clubs in the Premiership, as an example, get millions more than Championship teams, largely due to TV and broadcast rights.

Again, there are still several games to play in most leagues, so this list isn’t even close to finalized. But if the season had ended yesterday, which teams in the largest European leagues would be moving up in the world?

(And for comparison purposes, I’m also including the team just under the promotion zone so you can tell how close it is.)

Again, my sources are Fox Soccer and ESPN, so blame them if the point totals are wrong. But if the rules here are somewhat mucked up, that’s probably my fault. Seriously, some of these promotion rules are convoluted! As an example, in Italy’s Serie B, the top two teams are automatically promoted. The third place team can be too, but only if it’s ten points or more above the fourth place team. If not, that opens the door for not just #4, but also for #5 and #6, because then you’ll have a four team playoff.

Got it? Yeah, I’m not sure I do either, at least not for all leagues. But here we go anyway.

English Championship, for promotion to the EPL
These two teams would get automatic promotion
1 West Brom 74 points
2 Hull 72
And these four would be in playoffs for promotion:
3 Stoke 72
4 Bristol City 71
5 Watford 69
6 Crystal Palace 65
Currently the bridesmaid left watching the festivities would be:
7 Ipswich 64

Spanish Segunda, for promotion to La Liga

1 Numancia 67 pts.
2 Málaga 60
3 Sporting Gijon 52
Not quite there:
4 Real Sociedad 52

Italian Serie Ba, for promotion to Serie A
Automatic promotion:
1 Chievo Verona 73
2 Bologna 71
In playoffs for the third spot:
3 Lecce 69
4 Albinoleffe 68
5 Brescia 66
6 Pisa 63
Not quite there:
7 Rimini 54

French Ligue 2, for promotion to Ligue 1
Automatic promotion:
1 Le Havre AC 69
2 Nantes 66
3 Troyes 54
Not quite there:
4 Grenoble 52

Scottish Division 1, for promotion to the Scottish Premier League
Automatic promotion
1 Hamilton 72 pts.
Not quite there
2 Dundee 68

Dutch Eerste Divisie, for promotion to Eredivisie
Automatic promotion
1 FC Volendam 74 pts.
And after that, my brain lacks the capacity to figure it out. Want to see what I mean? Check out the promotion rules on Wikipedia.

Portuguese Liga de Honra, for promotion to BWIN Liga
(This one wasn’t in my usual sources, and the other sources I’m finding don’t seem up to date. Leave team names and point totals in the comments and I’ll add them here.)

And I almost forgot:

German Bundesliga 2, for promotion to Bundesliga 1
Automatic promotion:
1 Borussia M’gladbach 56
2 1. FC Köln 50
3 TSG Hoffenheim 50
Not quite there:
4 Mainz 49