Championship fixtures 2024/25: Every first round game as Luton and Burnley square off

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The teams who were demoted from the Premier League, Luton and Burnley, will start their efforts to get back into the top division when they play against each other in their first Championship match on August 12th.

The game at Kenilworth Road will take place on Monday night, wrapping up the final Championship match of the weekend. Things kick off on Friday night with a double-header featuring Blackburn taking on newly promoted Derby, and Sheffield United, recently relegated from the Premier League, facing off against Preston.

Portsmouth, who have been promoted to the Championship, will kick off their new season against Leeds. Meanwhile, Oxford will play against Norwich, who have a new coach, Johannes Hoff Thorup, taking over from David Wagner.

The new manager of Sunderland, Regis Le Bris, will start his time in charge with an away game against Cardiff. Meanwhile, Hull's new manager Tim Walter will face Bristol City in his first league match in charge.

All the matches in the Championship on Saturday will start at 12.30pm. The games in the first weekend of the Championship, League One, and League Two will be shown on Sky Sports+ as part of the EFL's new £935 million agreement with the broadcaster.

Overall, this agreement will result in a grand total of 1,059 EFL games being shown live throughout the season, including the final matches of the season.

Wrexham will begin their journey towards a third consecutive promotion by playing against Wycombe in League One on 10 August. Birmingham, under new manager Chris Davies, will be aiming to quickly move back up to the Championship and will face Reading in their first match.

Huddersfield will travel to Peterborough and Rotherham will make a long journey to Exeter after being relegated to the third division. Stockport, who have been promoted, will play at home against Cambridge, and Crawley will host Blackpool.

Mansfield, the team that also moved up from League Two, kicked off the action on Friday night with a visit to Barnsley.

Bromley will have their first experience of playing in the EFL when they face Harrogate in League Two this Saturday. Meanwhile, Chesterfield, who are the champions of the National League, will host Swindon on Friday evening.

All of the League One games on Saturday will start at 5.30pm so they can be shown on TV, while the League Two matches will begin at 3pm.

On Sunday, August 11th, Sheffield Wednesday will play against Wayne Rooney's Plymouth in the Championship.

The initial South Wales rivalry match will be held on August 24th at Swansea's home stadium against Cardiff. The return game will take place on January 18th.

Burnley, who have not yet chosen a new manager after Vincent Kompany left for Bayern Munich, will face off against Blackburn at Turf Moor on 31 August. They will then travel to Ewood Park on 4 January to continue their rivalry.

Sheffield United will face off against their rivals, Wednesday, on 9 November in the first Sheffield derby since March 2019. They will then travel to Hillsborough on 15 March for the return fixture.

These are the types of games that are expected to be rescheduled for TV broadcasts, as the EFL and Sky have promised to notify fans well in advance as part of their new agreement.

All TV channels will reveal the games they will broadcast until the end of September next week. Fans will be informed before the season starts of any changes to games held before the FA Cup third round weekend in January.

They will receive information about selections up until the first weekend in March by November 1st. After that, the notice period for selections will be four weeks in advance during the final stretch.

The first weekend of the Championship games

The first weekend of League One matches League One fixtures for the opening weekend

League Two's first set of games for the new season Exciting matches to kick off the League Two season The opening weekend schedule for League Two's teams Weekend games mark the start of the League Two season