Latest

Playoffs: Great drama or corporate greed?

|

So West Ham finished third and are in the play-offs for the third time in recent years. Although I shouldn’t complain as we snuck into 6th place last time and went up, I really don’t like the lottery that the play-offs create. Sure they’re exciting, but if your team is in the top 3 all season and then don’t go up, they seem like a bit of a kick in the teeth.

West Ham finished 10 points above any of the teams close to them, and surely that should separate them from the rest? On the train back from the game against Hull City I got thinking about alternatives to the play-offs. Here are a couple of scenarios I came up with:

18th place in Premier League play 3rd in the Championship in a one off play-off.  This match would probably be a fairer way of deciding who got a Premier League place, rather than teams as low as 5th and 6th in the Championship going up instead of whoever was in 3rd, or even 4th place. Part of me thinks that this still brings the excitement of the play-offs as they are now, but with a bit more fairness.

 

No play-offs at all – 3rd place go up – As in our case, sometimes third place are far above the next team to them in terms of points. The Championship is a league, and why should 6th place go up instead of 3rd who have worked harder and won more points during the whole season? The bottom teams in the Premier League don’t have play-offs to determine who goes down, so I don’t know why we have to have them to see who goes up.

Then there’s the money that the FA get from having the play-offs at all. Having Wembley full for three different leagues’ finals brings in a massive amount of revenue that is probably helping to pay for the building of the huge stadium. Surely this is a massive reason for why they exist in the first place?

I sound cynical I know; I just hate that whether a team in 3rd-6th place gets to the Premier league or not is decided by 3 matches instead of the season as a whole. But I guess it doesn’t matter too much anyway, as we’re going to go up regardless!

What do you think of the play-offs system? Tweet me at @alwaysintune to let me know.

Share this article

4 comments

  • Tony says:

    I agree with you. It is unfair, full stop.
    The whole three ring circus is a money spinner.

    These palyers are tired and should be resting up, not putting themselves in the firing line for unnecessary injuries.

  • MikeyD123 says:

    I love the play offs. As you say we got promoted when finishing 6th so no complaining here. Rather we had automatic but 3rd was where we finished. Come on you Irons !!

  • tonymcevoy says:

    The main benefit of the play off system is that it maintains interest for more clubs and their fans in the run in. Nothing worse than having all these nothing to play for matches.

    The play offs keep it interesting down to 7th, 8th, even 9th and 10th for a while.

  • Katherine Alder says:

    Very good point, didn’t think of it that way – it does spice things up for those not in line for automatic promotion!

Comments are closed.