As of 2022[update], the play-offs comprise two semi-finals, each conducted as a two-legged tie with games played at each side's home ground.

The aggregate winners of the semi-finals progress to the final, which is contested at Wembley Stadium; the victorious side is promoted to the league above, and the runners-up remain in the same division.

This "Heathrow Agreement" included a structural reorganisation of the league, reducing the top tier from 22 clubs to 20, and the introduction of play-offs to facilitate the change.

If the two teams are level on goals at the end of the regular 90 minutes of the second leg, the match goes into extra time, two 15-minute halves being played.

[8] The two semi-final winners then meet at Wembley Stadium, a neutral venue, for a one-off match referred to as the "play-off final".

Alexander recommended expanding the number of teams in each play-off series from four to six, providing more clubs with a chance at promotion.

[12] Throughout the history of the English Football League play-offs, the semi-finals have been conducted as two-legged matches played at the two stadia of the competing teams, less than a week apart.

Between the 1987 and 1989 play-offs, the finals were also played on a home-and-away basis over two matches, occasionally with a replay being required: in the 1988 Football League Third Division play-off final, the aggregate score after the two legs between Walsall and Bristol City was 3–3, so a penalty shoot-out was used to determine which side would host the replay.

Walsall won 4–2 and earned the right to play the deciding match at their home ground, Fellows Park,[13] where they triumphed 4–0.

This was markedly greater than the largest crowd during the 1989–90 First Division season, around 47,000, at Old Trafford to watch Manchester United against Arsenal, and roughly the same as the attendance at the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final.

[18] The former Wembley Stadium record for attendance in the fourth tier play-off final came in 1997 when a crowd of 46,804 witnessed Northampton Town's John Frain score in the last minute of the match to beat Swansea City 1–0.

[20] Teams who prepared for matches, including in cup competitions, in the south changing room went undefeated in twelve consecutive games; however, the "jinx" was broken in the 2002 Second Division play-off final, when Stoke City beat Brentford after having used the north changing room.

[21][22] Attendances continued to be high at the Welsh national stadium, with the second tier finals attracting more than 65,000 spectators on all but one occasion and the 2003 third tier final watched by 66,096 people when Cardiff City beat Queens Park Rangers 1–0 with an extra-time goal from Andy Campbell.

[39][40][41] However, by convention the two finalists agree that the loser will keep all the gate receipts from the game, to slightly soften the financial blow of missing out.

[42][43] As the gulf in financial power between clubs in the Premier League and the Championship widened, in the 2006-07 season parachute payments were introduced to reduce the impact of relegation.

Thus for two seasons following relegation a club would receive half of the per-club Premier League basic television money.

[39] The parachute payments were intended to lower the risk of a club going into administration because of the high cost base (mainly player wages) they brought from the higher division.