Championship Play-Off Vote

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Are you happy with the decision to expand the play-offs from 4 teams to 6 teams?

  • Yes

    Votes: 94 30.5%
  • No

    Votes: 170 55.2%
  • Not sure, I am not for it but also not against it

    Votes: 44 14.3%

  • Total voters
    308
Depends doesn't it, the major problem with the additional play off places for me personally is if we did get to them is the additional cost of another game. Potentially 4 games if we are lucky in May is bad enough but imagine a 5th. The clubs have no interest at protecting the fans interests, they are driving the cash cow that is modern day football and let's be honest about it even if we did get up in the play offs from an extended version. We wouldn't have the budget to stay in the Premier League and it then becomes a season of sticking and getting battered and genuinely our biggest achievement from being in the Premier League last time was not getting a worse points record than Derby. We don't have the money to compete and probably never will in this current format, the rich get richer and the gap is widening. Both Leeds and Sunderland spent over £100million in the summer and something like 15 squad changes each, they aren't the same side that got promoted. Even Burnley spent over £85mill in the summer.

Currently the EFL Trophy has a decent format however it is limited due to the congestion of fixtures, the EFL Cup unless you get past the Premier League 2nd string sides and start to get somewhere near the last 16, teams aren't interested as they know. A 2nd string Liverpool or Arsenal will more than likely be too strong especially if they pack the bench.

Imagine sticking a group of South Yorkshire clubs together, us, Wednesday, Barnsley and Rotherham as one group. You could have Wrexham, Cardiff, Swansea and Bristol City in another group, things of that nature where there is a bit of pride to play for or Yorkshire/Lancashire sides however it divides there are a few possibilities. Ultimately as we have seen in every playoff final failure it costs £100's to go to Wembley, £100's across the 2 semi's. There will be a breaking point at some point where people will become detached from clubs because of the cost element

Football is about entertainment and matches meaning something. If it’s the top 3 promoted only, there will be loads of meaningless matches.

I don’t care if it’s not fair to the team finishing 3rd, it’s more important that the interest in the competition is maintained. You can moan about clubs making money or ripping off fans, but the EFL isn’t some massive cash cow. A League Two club with 5 dead rubber home matches to play would see a drop in revenue which they probably can’t afford.

Like it or not, the playoffs are an important way of helping smaller clubs maintain decent attendances.
 



Appreciate the feedback, I personally think the playoffs are a terrible idea paying out near on £1000 over the 3 legs for tickets, travel and food/drink, now we could be adding in an additional match, to really tally it up. What would you do differently go out in the 1st round to Brum away, and Mansfield in the FA cup at the 1st time of asking and sit on our hands whilst we end up in a dead rubber season? We have tomorrow, Wednesday night and Blackburn as the 3 fixtures for teams that are currently below us in the table. None of those are gimmes either, the big games against sides pushing for playoffs will be difficult.

I'd rather be in our current situation of a dead rubber season than have to play in the cup competition you dreamt up above.

I just don't believe anyone would care about such a thing.
 
I'd rather be in our current situation of a dead rubber season than have to play in the cup competition you dreamt up above.

I just don't believe anyone would care about such a thing.

They wouldn’t care, even if they were played against local teams as LBA mentioned. If we played Barnsley or Rotherham in one of the cups, the attendance would be 10k at best. Some new competition wouldn’t create anymore interest.
 
I'd rather be in our current situation of a dead rubber season than have to play in the cup competition you dreamt up above.

I just don't believe anyone would care about such a thing.
Does anyone care about the EFL cup or FA Cup now? We may as well scrap them too and just play league matches.

I did dream it up and the purpose was for some debate, it is highly likely we will get to the start of April, and have 5-6 matches that don't mean anything to us based on nothing more than we haven't been able to string more than a few wins together against lower end sides this season for whatever the reason that has been (no excuses). But imagine if we had that situation but could be 3 matches away from a final at Wembley with the chance to win a cup and the teams we are playing are EFL clubs not Premier League sides. The club gets behind it, we charge £10 a ticket, priority tickets for Wembley are ones that bought into the cup, I am sure that an extra game against Barnsley at home becomes more interesting than a league game against Preston with nothing to play for.
 
Does anyone care about the EFL cup or FA Cup now?

Well, Wilder certainly doesn't.

But they're still major trophies that are very difficult to win.

The competition you proposed would just be a bunch of EFL teams playing each other for no reason.

Yeah, it'd be good for some smaller clubs to get a day out at Wembley and win something but that's what the EFL Trophy already exists for.
 
Well, Wilder certainly doesn't.

But they're still major trophies that are very difficult to win.

The competition you proposed would just be a bunch of EFL teams playing each other for no reason.

Yeah, it'd be good for some smaller clubs to get a day out at Wembley and win something but that's what the EFL Trophy already exists for.
Not for no reason, the reason is to merge the EFL Cup and Trophy removing the Premier League sides. By having groups you are guaranteed at least 3 matches in the competition which if for example if we had a smaller League 2 side in our group, it would give an old fashioned FA Cup style feel about the fixture. On your 2nd point it is but the Championship is alienated some what especially due to the competitions current format.
 
Not for no reason, the reason is to merge the EFL Cup and Trophy removing the Premier League sides. By having groups you are guaranteed at least 3 matches in the competition which if for example if we had a smaller League 2 side in our group, it would give an old fashioned FA Cup style feel about the fixture. On your 2nd point it is but the Championship is alienated some what especially due to the competitions current format.

My main point is that nobody would want to win it.

With no Premier League involvement it couldn't be classed as a major trophy.

Most seasons you'd probably end up with two mid table Championship teams in the final who weren't good enough to challenge for promotion.

Let's say Derby beat Stoke at Wembley. Well done to Derby but who cares? You've won this thing that isn't really a thing.

partridge-i-dont-know.gif
 
My main point is that nobody would want to win it.

With no Premier League involvement it couldn't be classed as a major trophy.

Most seasons you'd probably end up with two mid table Championship teams in the final who weren't good enough to challenge for promotion.

Let's say Derby beat Stoke at Wembley. Well done to Derby but who cares? You've won this thing that isn't really a thing.

View attachment 232675
It’s going to be the Same when Arsenal play Man City for a trophy with a prize of a European Conference league place and £100,000. Most of the side playing will be on more than that a week. If it was Derby vs Stoke, I imagine they would go for a day out at Wembley. Just like Pompey and Sunderland did in the FA Trophy final but who cares about that one in the grand scheme of things.
 
It’s nonsense, you cannot be finishing 8th and still in with a chance of promotion. Will it be down to 10th in 5 years ?
The Clubs were always going to vote for it because they are all chasing the premier league money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MKY
Does anyone care about the EFL cup or FA Cup now? We may as well scrap them too and just play league matches.

I did dream it up and the purpose was for some debate, it is highly likely we will get to the start of April, and have 5-6 matches that don't mean anything to us based on nothing more than we haven't been able to string more than a few wins together against lower end sides this season for whatever the reason that has been (no excuses). But imagine if we had that situation but could be 3 matches away from a final at Wembley with the chance to win a cup and the teams we are playing are EFL clubs not Premier League sides. The club gets behind it, we charge £10 a ticket, priority tickets for Wembley are ones that bought into the cup, I am sure that an extra game against Barnsley at home becomes more interesting than a league game against Preston with nothing to play for.
Would have scrapped the EFL cup years ago, and I think it will be gone in the next few years. Nobody would miss it, most clubs aren’t interested anyway.
 
Would have scrapped the EFL cup years ago, and I think it will be gone in the next few years. Nobody would miss it, most clubs aren’t interested anyway.
To be fair if that was put to a vote I imagine a of lot clubs would agree. Would take the pressure off with a mid week game at the start of the season
 
No that’s over done….to many teams and whoever finishes 10th has a reasonable chance of winning the play-offs and that is wrong.

The new format is best….where whoever finished 3rd and 4th have a huge advantage over the other clubs.
No, Dunne was over Oveur and I was under Dunne.
 
For me I would have reduced it to 3rd place straight to the final & 4th & 5th play off for the right to meet them in the final . At least there’s some actual reward for your performance against everyone in the league .
But that would be rewarding the deserving football wise & clearly wouldn’t fit in the TV companies & the greedy twats would it just the 3 games 👍⚔️
 
For me I would have reduced it to 3rd place straight to the final & 4th & 5th play off for the right to meet them in the final . At least there’s some actual reward for your performance against everyone in the league .
But that would be rewarding the deserving football wise & clearly wouldn’t fit in the TV companies & the greedy twats would it just the 3 games 👍⚔️
Think I love that idea.

Edit: But it's fine as it is, obviously!
 



This may work to our advantage next season with so many good team coming down. If you finish 3rd or 4th there is no real difference to what happens now! This is how it works.

How the New Format Works (2026/27 Onwards)

The new system adds a "quarter-final" stage (often called the Eliminator round) before the traditional semi-finals:

  1. Direct to Semi-Finals: The teams finishing 3rd and 4th get a bye. They skip the first round and go straight into the two-legged semi-finals.
  2. The Eliminator Round (One-off matches):
    • 5th place vs 8th place
    • 6th place vs 7th place
    • These are single-leg matches played at the home ground of the higher-ranked team (5th and 6th).
  3. The Semi-Finals: The winners of the eliminators will then face the 3rd and 4th placed teams in the traditional two-legged format.
  4. The Final: The two winners meet at Wembley in the winner-takes-all final.
 

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom