2025/26 SEASON: Sky Bet Championship Line-Up Confirmed

The divisional line-up for Derby County's upcoming 2025/26 Sky Bet Championship campaign has been confirmed.

Dropping down from the Premier League are Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton. They are replaced by the promoted trio of Leeds United, Burnley and Sunderland at the highest level of English football.

Derby and Ipswich will go head-to-head in the second tier for the first time since the 2018/19 season, having gone up against each other in League One in the 2022/23 campaign as the Tractor Boys gained promotion.

The Rams and Leicester were last in the same division back in 2013/14, although they did meet in the FA Cup during the 2016/17 campaign, while they will face Southampton in league action for the first time since the 2011/12 season. They did, however, clash in the FA Cup in the 2018/19 campaign.

Making the step up from League One are Birmingham City, Wrexham and Charlton Athletic, who take the places of the trio of relegated clubs in Luton Town, Plymouth Argyle and Cardiff City.

Derby and Birmingham last met in league action in the 2021/22 Championship, but fixtures against Wrexham have been few-and-far between. The two clubs last went head-to-lead in the league during the 1981/82 Second Division season, with just one meeting following in the 2006/07 FA Cup at Pride Park.

Play-Off Final winners Charlton Athletic, who Derby faced in League One during the 2022/23 season and the 2023/24 promotion-winning campaign, are in the second tier alongside the Rams for the first time since 2019/20.