May 04, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 27, 1429

LONDON, May 3: The race for a place in the Premier League reaches its climax on Sunday with eight Championship (second division) clubs still in the hunt for promotion.

West Bromwich Albion are all but assured of going up barring a freakish set of results, while Stoke City, Hull City, Bristol City, Watford, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield United are in contention to join them.

The rewards for gaining promotion are enormous with the three promoted teams set to receive the biggest financial boost in world club football, worth around 60 million pounds ($119 million) over three years.

Paul Rawnsley, the Director of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte explained: “The financial prize for promotion to the Premier League will provide each promoted club with at least 35 million pounds of additional revenue in 2008-09.

“In addition, even if a club is relegated after one year at the top level, guaranteed parachute payments of over 12 million pounds per season will be received for two more seasons.”

West Brom are virtually up, unless they lose at Queens Park Rangers and Hull win by 13 goals at Ipswich. The race for the second automatic promotion spot is between Stoke and Hull.

Stoke last played in the top flight 23 years ago while Hull would be making their first appearance at the highest level. Stoke will go up automatically if they get at least a point from their home match against relegation-threatened Leicester City.

Hull will go straight up if they win at Ipswich and Stoke lose.

Stoke, Hull and Bristol City are all assured of a place in the playoffs at least, with Watford, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Ipswich and Sheffield United still chasing a playoff spot.

At the other end, Colchester United and Scunthorpe United are already down, but one of former Premier League clubs Southampton, Leicester City, Coventry City and Sheffield on Wednesday could join them if results go against them.

Blackpool, promoted last year, are not yet completely clear of the one remaining relegation spot.

All 24 teams kick off their final matches at 1300 GMT, with the main priority for the promoted clubs thereafter being survival in the top division and avoiding the kind of humiliation suffered by Derby County this season.

Derby beat West Brom in the playoff final last year to win promotion, but have won only once in 36 matches, were relegated in March and are on course to finish with the lowest points total since the Premier League began in 1992.—Reuters