‘Football; it’s a funny old game’, so goes the saying. I’d have to agree. We finish 12 points clear of West Ham and yet it’s them that Gary Lineker & Co. will be announcing onto the premiership stage come August. We also finished nine points, or three clear victories, ahead of any team entering the play-offs but only two points off automatic-placed Wigan. Yet a team that wasn’t good enough to finish in the top five of the division goes up as the represented 3rd best team in the league. The league table doesn’t lie. It does under the current system….
Since ‘falling’ into the play-offs in May, they’ve taken-up much of my thinking time, I thought about how I would explain the play-off format to a person who had no knowledge of it. After much deliberation I came to the conclusion I would have to use two analogies before they would fully understand how it worked.
Firstly, I would try the analogy of it effectively being a penalty shoot-out. Yes, that’s a good one; like a penalty shoot-out the play-offs are a short decider at the end of a long match (a 46 game football season). It’s drama at its highest; neutrals must love it but those involved are necessitated to bite off any remaining nails, lose some hair and the fait-hearted will want to look away. The winners are delirious (they’re in the premiership!) but for the losers it’s heart-break, hitting the lowest of lows after coming sooo close.
If the penalty shoot-out thing didn’t work I’d just describe it in modern day terms, as the lottery. You secure your ticket (by finishing in positions ranging from 3rd to 6th over the course of a season) then as a fan it’s sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat-time and pray that your number (team) comes up and you win the jackpot/money (the reputed £12million for achieving premiership status). If you don’t win there’s always next time, as long as you get a ticket of course…
David Sheepshanks spoke out recently of how he wanted a play-off reform to be addressed at a football league conference he was attending in the Midlands. He wanted to propose a play-off system that favoured the 3rd placed-team, such as an automatic spot for them in the final. Wise words from our Chairman but its hardly groundbreaking stuff (ironically Crystal Palace suggested the same thing two years ago but support for it was few and far between) and many fans may feel he’s trying to get in good books after allowing too many good players to leave Portman Road. However, it brought the subject to the fore again and got many of us talking about possible solutions to the system.
As an Ipswich fan I’m more qualified than most to talk about the play-off system; we’ve been in them seven times now and only profited once, despite finishing in 3rd spot on three occasions! The last two teams to profit from the play-offs scraped into them through 6th place (Crystal Palace and West Ham). In my opinion the way they’re currently structured is simply ‘not cricket’. Try transferring it to another sport; a marathon runner comes in 3rd, a long way ahead of the 4th placed runner but then has to compete in a sprint against 4th to 6th place to decide who gets bronze; it’s crazy stuff!
In a sad time when TV and money control our ‘beautiful game’ the role of the play-offs is almost acceptable; with the huge gap that has developed between our top two leagues both financially and with regards to media interest, any extra interest and TV revenue that can be filtered down into the lower-leagues is paramount to their survival. The play-offs do this.
In Holland it’s established that the top Dutch players ply their trade outside of their country. As a direct result of dwindling interest, the top Dutch league will use play-offs next season to decide both Champions league and Uefa Cup berths; that’s ridiculous. Yes interest may pick up but for the professionals in the game it makes a mockery of the league format. Will there come a time where an 8th placed team in Holland can claim the Champions league spot due to an unsuccessful league campaign but a good run in the play-offs?
The most favoured option (if this play-off nonsense must ensue) is that the team in 3rd gains an advantage by getting a bye straight through to the final. Then the 4th placed team get the advantage of going straight into a semi-final, playing the winners of 5th versus 6th, from which 5th would gain the home advantage in a one-off game. That option seems to make more sense.
Other theories, of course, do the rounds. An amendment to the above is that 4th simply play 5th for the right to play 3rd in the final. After all, does a team not good enough to make the top 5 deserve Premiership football?
How about 3rd place plays 3rd from bottom in the premiership in a one-off game, to decide who is more deserving of Premiership status? What about away goals in the current system; they were scrapped but should they be?
In the Australian Super League play-offs they use a biased system towards your final placing, where the 3rd team plays 4th and the winner goes to the final, the loser then plays the winner of 5th versus 6th for a second chance to reach the final.
My own twist on the theories, however, is a system where a barrier is put on a play-off situation that would prevent the 3rd team running away from the rest in the league and still missing out (wish it was available last year obviously!). The system would work by laying down an amount of games in which 4th place must qualify mathematically for the play-offs after 3rd place has done so. Say it was within three matches of 3rd qualifying mathematically, then if they fail to do this, 3rd goes up automatically without the need for a play-off (come on, the very word to someone negligent of it suggests it occurs because things are close). This would keep things very exciting still at the end of the season but it’s far from full-proof, like many of these ideas and the biggest problem the football league would see would be the disruption of not knowing if a play-off situation would occur until fairly late on (poor old Sky wouldn’t like it one bit in that respect either, what a shame).
The current advantage presented to the highest placed entry in the play-off system currently resides in the fact that they get to play arguably the most inform and high confidence side, whilst normally being on the worst recent run of form themselves and low on confidence after missing an automatic spot. Oh yeah and they get the second leg at home, why not just give them more advantage with one leg at home?
Whether we like it or not the promotion play-offs which were introduced in the 1986/87 season seem to be here to stay. The football League says that it’s up to the representatives to complain if they don’t agree with the current system (their email address provided below; up to you…). I for one favour a system where the team in 3rd holds a distinct advantage that represents their achievements over the season above their play-off contenders. A system such as this surely can’t be disputed much? As I’d try and finish the explanation to my friend(albeit imaginary); the team that comes 3rd pays more money for their lottery ticket but essentially has the same chance of winning as the 6th placed team, who pays less.. What’s that? You’re confused? So am I….
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