The Play-offs and

[frogmiller]

When the League tinkered with the promotion and relegations by introducing the play-offs it seemed a barmy idea. But it's brought so much joy, disapointment and anger with the promotions and relegations.
Was t Newcastle who were 10+ points above the 4th place club and didn't go up? Back then it was ubfair but it gave the chasing teams sonething to play for.

Obiously as a club the 3 trips to Wembley have been great but who's been to more finals than any other club?

Which clubs haven't tasted Wembley via the play offs?

What surprising stats do you have about the play offs?

Are we the only country with a play-off system?

[CAMiller]

Obviously all Major League sports here in the US are playoff based at the end of the season to determine who are "World" Champions

One thing they do that I like is that in some way they give an advantage to the teams that finish the regular season with the better records, even if it's just that they get to play at home rather than away. Might not suit us to well this season!

In baseball the teams play 162 games. It used to be that 4 out of 15 teams made it to the playoffs, that was expanded to 5 and they are talking of expanding it to 7. So 162 games each to eliminate just 8 teams? They are also thinking of introducing a 'reality' aspect in that the team with the best record gets to pick who their opponent is, a bit like the opposite to at school where when picking teams you'd avoid the fat boy with the specs, in this case you'd pick to play against him!

[wrinkly]

When the League tinkered with the promotion and relegations by introducing the play-offs it seemed a barmy idea. But it's brought so much joy, disapointment and anger with the promotions and relegations.
Was t Newcastle who were 10+ points above the 4th place club and didn't go up? Back then it was ubfair but it gave the chasing teams sonething to play for.

Obiously as a club the 3 trips to Wembley have been great but who's been to more finals than any other club?

Which clubs haven't tasted Wembley via the play offs?

What surprising stats do you have about the play offs?

Are we the only country with a play-off system?

It's scenarios like the Newcastle one that fuel football mythology like "3rd place curse" as regards play-offs.

These figures are a few years old now (probably a newer version somewhere) but for the first 27 years of the play-offs the stats for playoff winners by league position were as follows:

Position Championship League One League Two Total Percentage
3rd (4th in L2) 10 9 13 32 39.50%
4th (5th in L2) 5 7 5 17 21%
5th (6th in L2) 7 5 4 16 19.80%
6th (7th in L2) 5 6 5 16 19.80%

so - the team finishing 3rd has triumphed most in all three divisions. The team finishing 4th (or equivalent)has been the second most successful.
So although people may believe in the 3rd place curse, statistically it doesn't exist.

[wrinkly]

Although the columns lined up when I typed them they've squashed up when posted.
To make a bit of sense out of it:
the teams just missing out on automatics won the play-offs:
10 times in the Championship
9 times in league 1
13 times in league 2
32 times in total 39.5% of play-off winners (all divisions) has been the team just missing out on autos.

Confused? I'm not surprised

[Scum-Triumphant]

In Germany, the teams who finish 16th in the Bundesliga and third in Bundesliga 2 contest the relegation play-off. The first leg is played at the home of the Bundesliga side and the second leg is played at the home of the Bundesliga 2 side.

[gm_gm]

In Germany, the teams who finish 16th in the Bundesliga and third in Bundesliga 2 contest the relegation play-off. The first leg is played at the home of the Bundesliga side and the second leg is played at the home of the Bundesliga 2 side.

In Japan there’s an animal called an Ashopha which looks like a ferret, dances on one leg, and makes sounds like elephant









I bet some daft bu.gger Google’s it!

[vespabri]

I like the bundesliga idea..
Union Berlin beat Stuttgart last season to get promoted and Stuttgart in turn were relegated.
When the playoffs were first introduced we had a similar system as I recall..why did we scrap that way?

[CAMiller]

I like the bundesliga idea..
Union Berlin beat Stuttgart last season to get promoted and Stuttgart in turn were relegated.
When the playoffs were first introduced we had a similar system as I recall..why did we scrap that way?

I believe it was thought to be better to give an incentive to one extra team to have the chance to gain promotion from the lower league than it was to give hope of survival to one more team in the higher division. Like when we lost out to Swansea, we'd already had a crap season and that loss just added insult to injury.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Not forgetting that matches were forced into Wembley to try to claw back some of the horrendous cost of building it.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

In Japan there’s an animal called an Ashopha which looks like a ferret, dances on one leg, and makes sounds like elephant









I bet some daft bu.gger Google’s it!

You learn something every day, I thought it was the name of Arsenal's latest signing.