Play-offs

[sir.prize]

How fair or unfair are these end of season play-offs to determine who shall be promoted?

In League Two I see that Torquay finished in 7th place, a full11 points behind Shrewsbury Town over the season. And then win 2-0 in the first leg of the play-offs. After the effort of a full season of 46 matches, promotion can be won or lost on a couple of unnecessary additional games. What is wrong with three up and three down, as it used to be?

As I said, fair or unfair! Could it be governed by revenue?

[daftgrandad]

It does seem a bit unfair,when they have to "walk the tightrope".
It only needs a bad refereeing decision and goodness knows there has been enough of those this season and the club which has played the better football throughout,stays down.

[redman41]

I have never been a fan of the Play-Offs because you have a whole Season to try and get Promoted. It's a money making exercise which is not fair on the fans.
Those involved in the Play-Offs will no doubt disagree but the Season is 42 Matches long, enough time to be successful or otherwise.

[piggynose]

simple solution, the fans should boycott the games, that should do it!!!

[danchip]

what happens when the top 3 build up a substantial gap by jan/feb, all the teams below them who are safe from relegation have nothing to play for and the end of the season is boring, players will be demotivated and wont play well and people will stop watching the boring football

[lesblue]

Everyone knows at the start of the season what the deal is, so obviously fair. I love them.

[redman41]

Swansea finished 3rd to QPR and Norwich and should have been promoted automatically instead of this Annual Play off farce.

[joeluke]

The promotion/relegation/play-off system is just one part of the game which has been tinkered with over recent years. I agree that they are exciting but unfair, IMO the top and bottom 3 or 4 should be promoted/relegated.

I remember when the play-offs were first introduced the team who finished 19th (4th from bottom - there were 22 teams in the top division at that time) in Division 1 (now Premiership) played the team who finished 5th in Division 2 (now Championship) over 2 legs, and the teams who finished 3rd and 4th in Division 2 did likewise. The winners of these ties played each other in a play-off final over 2 legs 2 determine who was to play in Division 1 the following season.

http://en.wikipedia.o...hampionship_play-offs

Other annoying ways the beautiful game has been tinkered with include:

*Only one cup replay game - in previous times some ties went to a 5th/6th replay!

*Penalty shoot-outs to decide semi-finals/finals - exciting but an unfair way to decide such games

*Champions League replacing European Cup - how can they call it the 'Champions' League when teams finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in their domestic leagues play in it (and win it)?.

*They've messed about with the offside rule way too much and there are far too many grey areas surrounding it

* petty yellow cards for kicking the ball away/taking shirts off for scoring, incurring the same penalty as a bad foul does

[lesblue]

Further to joelukes's answer, Chelsea are the only team to have been relegated from the top division via the play-offs.

[mark01]

My own club, Bristol City, finished 3rd in Division 2 in successive seasons, 2002/3 and 2003/4 and we missed out in the subsequent play offs.

Unfair - Yes. But all clubs know the conditions of the play offs every season before a ball is kicked.

[mark01]

If you really want to feel sorry for a team this season it must go be Bognor Regis Town who play in the Ryman South.

They lost out on winning the title to Met Police by GOAL DIFFERENCE of one goal. They then went on to lose the play off semi final to Dulwich Hamlet, who finished 31 points behind them in the league. Unbelievable!

[Davethedog]

Yellow card for taking shirt off is petty, kicking the ball away is dissent, there are times when you can say a bit of common sense is needed as in the case of Van Persie, but in other cases its blatent dissent or time wasting.

[Ric.ror]

Don't get me started on the FA cup semis at wembley
I went on a tour of that soulless place and nearly slapped the tour guide but what to expect from an arsenal fan

[sir.prize]

These are not my words - but definitely my sentiments regarding the play-offs.

Should be a great bonus at the Olympics - gold and silver OK, but the next 4 have a re-run for the bronze?
Pack it in FA!