Life, the Universe and Everything

With the football season about to come to an end it should soon be time for my buddy Steve and me to have our annual argument about the fairness or unfairness of the play-offs. To clarify: Steve thinks that they are an exciting prospect that extends the season for another few weeks adding to the quality of the football; whereas I know that he is wrong. I will now get my defence in early to illustrate just why he is wrong: and this time, I am going to back up my argument with actual research and some statistics. For the purpose of this article I shall only deal with teams entering the top flight as that is where I have the most experience.

The play-offs were introduced in 1986/87 season; and are played after the close of the normal season. In that inaugural season, the nineteenth-placed team in the top flight played fifth from the second tier in one semi-final; the second semi-final was contested between third and fourth of the second tier. In their second year, nineteenth place in the top flight was replaced by eighteenth place due to the reduction of teams in the top division. Thereafter, all the semi-finalists came from the second tier, with third playing sixth and fourth playing fifth. The competition was initially called the Football League Second Division play-offs up to the introduction of the Premier League in the 1992/93 season: where they became the Football League First Division play-offs. In the 2004/05 season the First Division was re-branded, so the competition became the Football League Championship play-offs.

My first complaint has always been that through the course of the football season the teams establish their league position on merit: yet the third place team was only promoted on seven occasions (33% of the time) since the introduction of the play-offs. Steve usually counters that my team - West Ham United - were promoted as play-off winners in 2004/05 when they finished the season in sixth place. I will accept that this was unfair - if I did not, I would destroy my whole argument - but I would like to point out the previous season, West Ham finished third: and lost out to Crystal Palace in the final: who finished sixth. The best example of this unfairness that I can recall is from the 1992/93 season. In the First Division that season, Newcastle United led right from the very start with West Ham in second place. The only other team to get into the top two places during the whole of that season was the eventual third-place team; Portsmouth, who were then knocked out of the play-offs in the semi-finals. These three teams dominated that season, yet only two reaped the rewards that all three deserved.

My second gripe is not so much with the play-offs themselves, but with the consequences of four teams continuing to play on to until the end of May before they know their fate the following season. The managers of the teams involved in the play-offs have to wait until after the final whistle before they can begin dealing in the transfer market - they will not attract potential Premier League players to their teams on the chance that they may get promoted. Consequently, the two teams that have been promoted automatically will attract the cream of players seeking a move, leaving the play-off winners with less choice when their manager attempts to strengthen their squads. A level playing field is needed here; and we had one until the play-offs were introduced. The result of this delay is that there is a team promoted to the top flight that has not been able to strengthen their squad for the step up in quality. These teams often find themselves sitting at the bottom of the league pretty much from the start of the season, suffering drubbings from the rest of the league along the way. Since the introduction of the play-offs, the team entering the top flight by this method has gone straight back down thirteen times (62% of the time).

I was at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff the day West Ham secured promotion to the premier league and I have to admit that it was a thrilling occasion. However, our promotion came a year too late as far as I am concerned. The previous season, we were - as the league table shows - the third best team in that league: yet the two teams better than West Ham, plus the sixth best team reaped the benefits of promotion. The third-placed team should automatically be promoted at the culmination of a forty-two game season. The benefit from TV sponsorship money received after achieving promotion from the Football League Championship to the Premier League make the Championship play-off final the most valuable trophy in world football; that cannot be right by anybody’s standards.