Playoffs in general are annoying. The Dutch second division is a particularly mad one: the best team in each quarter of the season gets a playoff place. A team could finish in the bottom half and promote to the Eredivisie.
Nice idea, but it'd probably get too messy. European qualification is complicated enough already, with intricate rules about domestic cup finalists etc. Who would qualify for the Europa League? Not to mention UEFA having to agree to this too.
You rarely hear moans from the 3rd place teams now as the play offs are an accepted part of the league make up. One perhaps slightly unexpected benefit of the play offs is the competitiveness of the league. With more teams with a shot of promotion it means the talent is spread more evenly
Would anyone really want to go to the Relegation Play-Off Final? 90 minutes of misery, who would pay for that ffs? Daft idea.
Problem would be that I think the more wealthy Premiership teams would most likely win as teams in the Championship would not strengthen on the off chance of promotion. Could you imagine QPR v Crystal Palace last year :s.
In aussie rules the regular season is followed by a final series that the top 8 (out of 18) teams compete in. With the first round of finals being the top 4 teams playing each other, the losers of which will play the winners of the bottom half in the next round while the top half's winners get the week off. Having a finals series means that most matches in the regular competition remain competitive and that intensity is further enhanced in what is universally considered to be a fair finals series. This way of deciding who is the best team isn't ever seriously questioned as it is part of the tradition of the sport. also unlike many sports the regular competition does not consist of each team playing each other home and away so the current finals system is actually fairer. The Premier League, with the Champions league qualification, europa league, relegation and significant sums of money per place higher probably has the most incentive of any competition in the world. Although I like qwerty's idea.
When play offs were introduced for the 1986â87 season, the play-offs originally featured a top flight team as well as the three second tier clubs. This format was continued for the 1987â88, but discontinued afterwards to include only the four teams who finished behind the team or teams winning automatic promotion.
I don't like the play-offs fullstop. If you're not good enough over the course of the season to achieve promotion by being in the top 3 or are bad enough to sit in the bottom 3 (or however many depending on the league you're in) then you don't deserve an extra game to change that.
I'm so glad I read this thread through before posting EXACTLY what you just did! Great minds Pie. Great minds....
Farnborough finished 2nd in two out of three seasons a few years back, and both times they went on to lose in the play-off final. Both times I was there, so I know that feeling well! As for relegation play-offs, nooooo. Hampshire teams don't do play offs and I'm not convinced we'd finish high enough in the league to not be in them.
