Hull City AFC

Hull City AFC are the Tigers of East Yorkshire, back in the Premier League for 2026-27 after winning the Championship playoff final at Wembley. They play in amber and black at the MKM Stadium, the riverside bowl that has been home since 2002, and remain one of English football's most distinctive provincial clubs. Promotion via a stoppage-time winner against Middlesbrough capped a season few expected Hull to finish in the top six. The Tigers' Premier League story is short — five previous seasons — but loud, built on playoff nights and a city that treats top-flight football as a rare prize.

Founded in 1904, Hull City spent most of the 20th century outside the top flight before Dean Windass's 2008 Championship playoff final winner sent the Tigers into the Premier League for the first time. They reached an FA Cup final in 2014, losing to Arsenal, and yo-yoed between the top two divisions before dropping out after 2016-17. Nine years later, Hull returned the same way they first arrived: through the playoffs. Manager Sergej Jakirović's side finished sixth in the Championship, then beat Millwall and Middlesbrough, with Oli McBurnie scoring the Wembley winner in stoppage time to make it a sixth Premier League season in club history.