Alternative Play-off Scenario....don't worry, hypothetical only!

At the moment we have 3 teams automatically relegated from the Prem, with teams placed third to sixth in the Championship, playing off for one promotion place.

My feeling is that a more interesting situation would arise with only two teams being automatically relegated from the Prem, with third bottom entering playoffs with places three to five of the Championship.

It is unlikely, given season-long form that puts the team third bottom anyway, but a Premiership team triumphing over three games against Championship wannabees would have confirmed its right to stay up............

Discuss!

This was the format when the playoffs were first introduced, lasting for two seasons (86/87 and 87/88) before the present format was brought in. I don't know the reason for the change, though.

in many ways the old system of a straight-forward top three up and bottom three down is much fairer as over the course of a season you have earned the right to be where you are

Absolutely right Dave......but the playoffs weren't brought in to make things fairer, they were brought in to make the end to the season more meaningful for more clubs who were otherwise playing fairly meaningless games for a mid-table place.

Oh all right then, they were brought in to make more money.

davewebber65 wrote:in many ways the old system of a straight-forward top three up and bottom three down is much fairer as over the course of a season you have earned the right to be where you are

This is the fairer way, but I think the play-offs are brilliant, they offer brilliant excitement and give teams something to play for right up to the last round of matches. Every team know what they have to do at the start of the season, if they're not good enough for automatic then they have to slug it out with 3 other teams. I love it!

The Tonker wrote:This was the format when the playoffs were first introduced, lasting for two seasons (86/87 and 87/88) before the present format was brought in. I don't know the reason for the change, though.

Goddammit......I thought the idea had come to me in a dream.....

Looking back at those two seasons, the format coincided with the reduction in size of the old 1st Division, prior to the introduction of the Premiership. In each season, there were three auto relegations, with the fourth bottom entering the playoffs with the third to fifth from the old 2nd Division.

Interestingly, in 1987, Charlton won to avoid relegation, but in 1988 fourth bottom Chelsea lost to Middlesbro' who took their place in the top division.

I do like that concept, even if it had already been tried...............

I'm pretty sure this format is used in several leagues still. The Belgian league is one that comes to mind.

The Greek league operates a play-off system for their places in European competitions. The league champions get an automatic CL spot whilst the teams placed 2nd-5th take part in a mini league and then it all gets complicated with the 5th place team starting off on 0 points and teams 2-4 starting with bonus points based on some mathematical shite that I don't understand.

R-DONO wrote:The Greek league operates a play-off system for their places in European competitions. The league champions get an automatic CL spot whilst the teams placed 2nd-5th take part in a mini league and then it all gets complicated with the 5th place team starting off on 0 points and teams 2-4 starting with bonus points based on some mathematical shite that I don't understand.

....and people wonder why the Greek economy is in such a mess!

The Tonker wrote:

R-DONO wrote:The Greek league operates a play-off system for their places in European competitions. The league champions get an automatic CL spot whilst the teams placed 2nd-5th take part in a mini league and then it all gets complicated with the 5th place team starting off on 0 points and teams 2-4 starting with bonus points based on some mathematical shite that I don't understand.

....and people wonder why the Greek economy is in such a mess!

Funnily enough this system was brought in at the beginning of the 2008 season. The very same year that the Greek economic crisis hit. Coincidence, I don't think so.

if you have a play-off to decide who goes down then i think it should be between the teams in that league's "relegation zone."
those teams are usually a lot stronger than those in the "aspiring league" and so it may not be much of a contest and in consequence unfair.
it can also be argued that the teams in the higher league would have a vested interest in preserving the status qou

Playoffs do make things more exciting.

Though I feel for the clubs that finish midtable year in, year out... perhaps a new system should be developed for them too.

Perhaps a mini competition to win a decent seeding for the FA Cup final rounds or something