Birmingham start League One campaign against Reading

Birmingham City will start their first season in England’s third tier for 29 years with a home match against Reading, while Wrexham will host Wycombe Wanderers on the Welsh club’s return to League One.

Huddersfield Town and Rotherham United, the two sides relegated from the Championship with Birmingham, will travel to Peterborough United and Exeter City respectively to kick off their campaigns at 17:30 BST on Saturday, 10 August.

League Two title winners Stockport County will host Cambridge United on the opening day, while Mansfield Town, who went up automatically alongside the Hatters and Wrexham, will head to Barnsley for the first game of the new League One season on Friday, 9 August.

Crawley Town, who beat Crewe Alexandra in the League Two play off final to seal promotion in May, will face Blackpool in one of the 11 third-tier games kicking off at 17:30 BST on the first Saturday.

Matches across the three English Football League divisions will be staggered that day, with Championship games kicking off earlier, at 12:30 BST, and League Two games taking the traditional 15:00 BST slot.

All of the opening round of fixtures in all three divisions will be broadcast live on Sky Sports as part of their new £935m five-year deal with the EFL.

The first midweek league fixtures of the campaign follow seven weeks later on Tuesday, 1 October.

The 2024-25 season will conclude on Saturday, 3 May 2025.

Barnsley v Mansfield Town (Friday, 9 August 20:00 BST)

Birmingham City v Reading

Bristol Rovers v Northampton Town

Burton Albion v Lincoln City

Crawley Town v Blackpool

Exeter City v Rotherham United

Leyton Orient v Bolton Wanderers

Peterborough United v Huddersfield Town

Stevenage v Shrewsbury Town

Stockport County v Cambridge United

Wigan Athletic v Charlton Athletic

Wrexham v Wycombe Wanderers

All matches kick-off on Saturday, 10 August at 17:30 BST unless stated.

For Wrexham, it will be their first season in League One for 19 years, while fellow promoted clubs Mansfield and Stockport also end long absences – 21 and 15 years respectively – from the division.

While it took 15 years for Wrexham to get out of the National League, the Hollywood-backed Welsh club bounded through League Two at their first attempt to win promotion as runners-up to Stockport last season.

Wrexham’s back-to-back promotions from non-league football has been chronicled in a popular television docuseries, which has been commissioned for a fourth season, as owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney continue their quest to get the club to the Championship.

Their match against Birmingham, a club which NFL legend Tom Brady has a minority share in, drew huge attention even before fixtures were released, with it being reported that the EFL turned down a request to move to the game to the United States.

Blues will host Wrexham on Saturday, 14 September, with the reverse fixture on Saturday, 25 January.

Relegated sides Birmingham and Huddersfield are two of seven League One teams that have played in the Premier League in the past 17 years.

Bolton are again among that group of highly-fancied former top-flight clubs trying to now get back to the Championship. They narrowly missed out on automatic promotion before then being beaten in the play-off final by Oxford.

The Trotters travel to Leyton Orient first up next season.

Wigan and Reading, two clubs that dropped out of the Premier League together 11 years ago and have since grappled with financial problems, will start their campaigns against Charlton Athletic and Birmingham respectively.

Wigan started last season on minus eight points because of their financial woes and finished mid-table, while the Royals’ first season in the third tier for 21 years was a turbulent one as they were deducted six points for their financial problems, while owner Dai Yongge began efforts to sell the club.

One takeover bid at Reading collapsed earlier in the summer, forcing the club to move on to talk to potential new suitors in early June.

Burton Albion, who avoided relegation on the final day last season, face their first campaign under new ownership – having been taken over by Sweden-based Nordic Football Group – against Lincoln City, a club that counts former co-owner of Major League Baseball side San Diego Padres, Ron Fowler, as a minority shareholder.