Play Off Format

[Tray]

I don't like this idea, as mentioned in this thread the potential for a team in 8th to be promoted is daft imo.

However, it will get voted through by the clubs because it gives probably 21 of the teams in the league a realistic chance of getting a chance in the play offs, and which teams are going to argue with it, other than those that have just come down from the Prem?

Just adding more games so they can get a bit more TV money. But that's the way football is going.

 

[bakeblade]

OP may get his way!

EFL clubs 'to vote on radical change to Champ playoffs' despite Prem opposition — The Sun

EFL CLUBS are set to vote on “radical” changes to the Championship playoffs despite opposition from the Premier League.

apple.news

It's a Yes from me

 

[bakeblade]

Sod’s Law we will finish 8th bit it will be implemented next season!!!

It will help us next season then

 

[Blademan89]

Because that's how the tournaments work... I actually think that giving more places to Leagues which have more money is a negative.

I'd rather see the winners and cup winners of each nation get entered automatically and then the runners up and next places go into the qualifiers rather than favour countries with mega TV deals in place.

That would strengthen all leagues not just the leagues with the most TV revenue.

Yeah, I know how it works and the system. But I'd rather see better teams from leagues higher up the pyramid turning out to make it interesting.

That's just my opinion, and what I would rather see, that isnt just to europa conference either that goes throughout all of the competitions, I see some random dross in there and think what is the point.

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

Maybe we will finish 8th then finally win the play-offs.

 

[SwissBlade]

Yeah, I know how it works and the system. But I'd rather see better teams from leagues higher up the pyramid turning out to make it interesting.

That's just my opinion, and what I would rather see, that isnt just to europa conference either that goes throughout all of the competitions, I see some random dross in there and think what is the point.

So why not just make the competitions full of sides from the top ranked leagues.... Premier league, championship, Serie A, Bundesliga and La Liga.... get rid of everyone else

The random dross, as you call them qualify and go through a lot of games through the summer just to reach the proper stages of the competitions. By that time, the weaker sides have gone and it then just becomes a very money biased system:

• Biggest money Leagues
• A bit of money leagues
• Cashless leagues

 

[jt64]

You have hit the nail on the head. MONEY POINT OF VIEW.
Surely it should be first past the post??
Over 46 games, top three are the best teams.
Someone finishing in 8th getting promoted?
Absolute joke.

At the same time, under those rules I wouldn't have been the only one saying the season was dead in September

 

[programmechap]

I’m old fashioned and think that the top 3 teams over a 9 month league should get automatic promotion.
However,my compromise has always been 3 in the playoffs.
The team that finishes 3rd goes straight to Wembley and 4th v 5th play home and away to get to final.
Hate it when a team that finishes 6th gets to the premier league

My compromise would be keep the same format but all games finish on 90 minutes. If its a draw then, the higher placed team goes through/gets promoted.

 

[Blademan89]

I woul

So why not just make the competitions full of sides from the top ranked leagues.... Premier league, championship, Serie A, Bundesliga and La Liga.... get rid of everyone else

The random dross, as you call them qualify and go through a lot of games through the summer just to reach the proper stages of the competitions. By that time, the weaker sides have gone and it then just becomes a very money biased system:

• Biggest money Leagues
• A bit of money leagues
• Cashless leagues

I would happily see us go through qualifiers in the summer.

There is some dross that is part of them competition, theres no denying that.

As I say I respect your feelings and views on it, but my preference is to see the better leagues have teams in, I think winning tbe chamionship you should have more merit to compete than somone from ireland/iceland/austria/romania/bosnia etc.... them teams be lucky to finish anywhere in top 10 in our league.

 

[SwissBlade]

I woul

I would happily see us go through qualifiers in the summer.

There is some dross that is part of them competition, theres no denying that.

As I say I respect your feelings and views on it, but my preference is to see the better leagues have teams in, I think winning tbe chamionship you should have more merit to compete than somone from ireland/iceland/austria/romania/bosnia etc.... them teams be lucky to finish anywhere in top 10 in our league.

I think you miss the point of it entirely as its supposed to be a competition for the best teams from each of the european leagues to face each other, but in reality its just the money making scheme for the already rich clubs, with little chance for the teams from poorer leagues to even compete.

There is no dross, just no money in the leagues you mention, although the system is designed to benefit teams from leagues that do well..

The best and most sensible thing would be to make it more even and more competitive for the leagues with no money. The English league is far too dominant financially and I don't think that is healthy for the game. Although its probably the countries biggest single export.

In fairness, i'm pretty happy that a side like Pafos was able to finish above the likes of Napoli, Ajax and Villarreal this year, they're only the third Cypriot side to reach the main competition. What annoys me is that if Pafos win their league again (or another Cypriot side), they'll have to go through the Qualifiers again this summer, but most likely entering in the 2nd qualification round since the Cypriot league ranking has moved up to 19th, Pafos has helped them to do this with their performance this year (although its based on 5 year performances:

2026–27 UEFA Champions League - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Irony is that because the standard in the Cypriot League is lower, generally, its given the likes of Pafos the opportunity to focus much more on the Champions League as well as maintaining their position at the top domestically.

 

[AdamSufc1997]

Not popular but it’ll benefit us

 

[DifferentClass]

How the fuck is Ridsdale still alive?

FTFY.

 

[Bladesman]

If anything as Blades fans, given our history we should want to see the play-offs axed and 3rd place get automatically promoted.

 

[biggiesablade]

Get to lose play offs every year yaay

 

[Snowflake]

I don't like this idea, as mentioned in this thread the potential for a team in 8th to be promoted is daft imo.

However, it will get voted through by the clubs because it gives probably 21 of the teams in the league a realistic chance of getting a chance in the play offs, and which teams are going to argue with it, other than those that have just come down from the Prem?

Just adding more games so they can get a bit more TV money. But that's the way football is going.

If United finish strongly this season they could finish 8th and be the best team in the play offs, so it’s not necessarily a weak team that gets promoted.
Given the potential strength of the Championship next season it may be our best chance !
!

 

[The Vicar]

Why not just forget about the championship season and have a knockout competition to see who gets promoted?

 

[LBA_Blade]

Why not just forget about the championship season and have a knockout competition to see who gets promoted?

I know not exactly what you mean but I have always thought that they should get rid of the EFL trophy and reshape the EFL Cup (Carabao cup) to remove Premier League sides from it along with European spot, this would give incentive to try and progress for Championship clubs knowing a trip to Wembley and a chance to win silverware.
The problem with the playoffs apart from the Sky money is the additional fixtures on top of an already packed fixture list.

If you went up in autos last season, the season finished on the 3rd May although the playoff final was 24th May, with us losing that our season started 11 weeks later on the 8th August with the Premier League starting the week after on the weekend of 16th August. I get that football is as it is because of Sky's TV money however I think scrapping the playoffs so its top 3 up, which gives the teams going up an extra 3-4 weeks to prepare for the season, can only be a positive. If they wanted to generate more income from Sky for the EFL, get rid of the 3pm blackout and have games behind the red button, along with advertising, that is another at least 30 weeks worth of games.

 

[Superblades]

After losing every way possible in the current system, the new format will give us another way of losing in them. Bring it on.

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Makes a mockery of your results over 46 games tbh ..the National League follows the format of play offs down to 7th place .. York who finished 2nd last season on 96 points missed out to Oldham who finished 23 points below them over 46 games . Sorry that can never be right

 

[bruce]

Great! If adopted, this format will just give us even more opportunities to lose in the play offs.

 

[Houston_Blade]

If we’re 8th it’s a great idea, if we’re 3rd it’s terrible.

For the next few years I think we’ll be closer to 8th than 3rd though with the drop off in budget.

 

[derfblade.3]

Makes a mockery of your results over 46 games tbh ..the National League follows the format of play offs down to 7th place .. York who finished 2nd last season on 96 points missed out to Oldham who finished 23 points below them over 46 games . Sorry that can never be right

But the flip side is that all clubs know the rules before a ball is kicked, so i'm sure if it was reversed with Oldham on 93 pts and York 23 worse off then York would gladly accept the promotion.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

The play offs are absolutely perfect as they are.

Any attempt to fuck with it should be shot down immediately.

 

[I should coco]

Why not just forget about the championship season and have a knockout competition to see who gets promoted?

Brilliant idea.

We could also invite all non league clubs and the little nations that never make the World Cup finals, as they all 'deserve' their chance.

Just ask Sepp Infantino. Imagine how good it would be for world football, if United get beaten by the Chagos Islands, in the playoff final at Wembley.

 

[GeorgeDonis1889]

No need to change it at all. And it just means we'll probably lose in the play offs more often and probably get beat by a team that finished 40 points behind us at some point.

Things to look forward to I suppose.

 

[Blade56]

Should make 17th and 18th int PL play 3rd and 4th int Championship in a 4 way playoff. 5th and 6th don’t deserve a sudden chance like Sunderland had judged over a full season. Still think Bris kept his powder dry at the end of the season just to be ready for playoffs

 

[Selly]

Should make 17th and 18th int PL play 3rd and 4th int Championship in a 4 way playoff. 5th and 6th don’t deserve a sudden chance like Sunderland had judged over a full season. Still think Bris kept his powder dry at the end of the season just to be ready for playoffs

No offence - that's an awful idea - having 2 squads chock full of PL players playing Championship players would just result in fewer PL teams being relegated each year.

 

[BobbyDavison'sDebut]

My view is that any playoff structure should be heavily weighted in favour of the higher placed teams, so based on the current 3rd-6th:
3rd go straight to to the final
5th v 6th over 2 legs
4th v winner of 5th v 6th over 2 legs

 

[UHLENBEEKS-RIGHT-BOOT]

Apologies I haven't caught up on previous posts but there is not way for me this should be encouraged - Unfortunately i suspect it will.

The play-offs provide plenty of drama, surprise and excitement in the format it currently is and is much fairer.

But to expand to 8th place is Madness for me. The gap is often staggering and will result in teams going up who aren't good enough or ready(albeit the gap widens that much that is usually most years).

24/25 - 24 points
23/24 - 21 points
22/23 - 12 points
21/22 - 13 points
20/21 - 9 points
19/20 - 13 points

in some instances they may not seem large numbers but as a matter of fact, it's a minimum of 3 wins, sometimes much more.

Where do you draw the line?

 

[Gimli]

Should make 17th and 18th int PL play 3rd and 4th int Championship in a 4 way playoff. 5th and 6th don’t deserve a sudden chance like Sunderland had judged over a full season. Still think Bris kept his powder dry at the end of the season just to be ready for playoffs

Sunderland finished 4th