Entertaining, exciting...but fair? (2 Viewers)

[Macca]

So in the championship a full 14 points seperates 3rd and 6th yet at the end of the season its a level playing field

 

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[jimmyhillsfanclub]

Well its certainly fair....evetyone knew what happens when you finish 3rd - 6th before a ball was kicked.

And even then...the po semis are 2 legged to help the superior team progress

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

If we went up via the play offs fair if we failed not fair

i like the play offs as they keep teams interested but would prefer it as before where the team from the league above was involved ( well I think that happened anyway)

 

[Gazolba]

No, it's not fair. It's purely a money-grabbing strategy. Borrowed from the USA. The top teams on points should go up and there should be no 'play-offs'. It's really not fair when the third club just misses out but gets thrown in with the other clubs with a much worse record over the whole season.

 

[chiefdave]

It's great if you finish in the play off places! Defeats the purpose of it being a league. You play all season then don't get promoted but someone that finished 4 places below you goes up.

 

[pipkin73]

In Speedway and Rugy Union, the top four teams battle it out to be champions in a play-off series. You can be top by 15 points but that only gets you the choice of the team to play in the Semi Finals. At least in footy if you win the league or are runners up you go up. Imagine CCFC win Div 1 but then lose to 4th placed Lakeside in a play-off. I think footy does the play-offs much fairer than other sports.

 

[RegTheDonk]

I reckon they should have a round-robin of matches against each other:

3rd (at home) Vs 4th
3rd (at home) Vs 5th
3rd (at home) Vs 6th
4th (at home) Vs 5th
4th (at home) Vs 6th
5th (at home) Vs 6th

and, forget win/lose, the team who have the better goal average over the 3 games goes up. Sounds fair to me (the better finishing clubs have home advantage) and the money grabbers at Wembley don't make a bean.

 

[Ashdown]

No, it's not fair. It's purely a money-grabbing strategy. Borrowed from the USA. The top teams on points should go up and there should be no 'play-offs'. It's really not fair when the third club just misses out but gets thrown in with the other clubs with a much worse record over the whole season.

It's the same in Rugby Union, Ice Hockey and Speedway to name a few. It's a proper money spinner !

 

[Otis]

I reckon they should have a round-robin of matches against each other:

3rd (at home) Vs 4th
3rd (at home) Vs 5th
3rd (at home) Vs 6th
4th (at home) Vs 5th
4th (at home) Vs 6th
5th (at home) Vs 6th

and, forget win/lose, the team who have the better goal average over the 3 games goes up. Sounds fair to me (the better finishing clubs have home advantage) and the money grabbers at Wembley don't make a bean.

Best one, as I put on here a while back, is:

5th play 6th (one leg)

4th then plays winner of the 6th v 5th game

3rd plays winner of above game in the final

Therefore 6th and 5th teams have to win 3 matches to gain promotion. Team finishing 4th has to win 2 games to gain promotion and 3rd place has to win just the 1 match.

At the moment there can be little incentive as to whether you finish 3rd, or 4th, or 5th, or 6th and it can quite often just come down to which team is the form team of the moment .

With this system it would promote the need to finish 3rd and then in turn 4th and then obviously, 5th. Each team would be rewarded accordingly.

 

[Sumo the Micky Quinn]

Best one, as I put on here a while back, is:

5th play 6th (one leg)

4th then plays winner of the 6th v 5th game

3rd plays winner of above game in the final

Therefore 6th and 5th teams have to win 3 matches to gain promotion. Team finishing 4th has to win 2 games to gain promotion and 3rd place has to win just the 1 match.

At the moment there can be little incentive as to whether you finish 3rd, or 4th, or 5th, or 6th and it can quite often just come down to which team is the form team of the moment .

With this system it would promote the need to finish 3rd and then in turn 4th and then obviously, 5th. Each team would be rewarded accordingly.

Don't they do that in Scotland?

 

[Gazolba]

You may as well just toss a coin. But that would not make any money.

 

[Sumo the Micky Quinn]

Remember the very first season of the play offs back in 1986-7 then again in 87-88.

Charlton finished 19th above Relegated Leicester 20th, Man City 21st & Villa 22nd

Div 2 - Oldham 3rd, Leeds 4th, Ipswich 5th.

Semi - Charlton V Ispwich & Oldham v Leeds Final Charlton V Leeds Charlton won replay 2-1 at Birmingham City to keep their place in Division one, after a 2 leg final draw at each ground.

The following season Chelsea lost their Division one place in the play off final.

The following season the format was changed to just the promotion teams 3rd to 6th.