Playoff

A playoff in sports (North American professional sports in particular) is a game or series of games played after the regular season is over with the goal of determining a league champion. The championship of a league may be determined by as few as a single playoff between two teams, or by an elimination tournament involving several teams.

Playoffs in English football (soccer)

For the first hundred years of its history, the English Football League did not employ any kind of playoff system to determine either a champion or promotion except in the earliest years of the Second Division when "test matches" decided promotion and relegation between the top teams of the Second Division and the bottom teams at the top level. This system was abandoned by the turn of the century.

Related Topics:
Football League - Test matches

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To this day, the championship of every division in English football is determined solely by the "regular season" standings. A championship playoff would only be held if two teams were tied for points, goal difference and goals scored - this has never happened at the professional level.

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The use of playoffs to decide promotion issues finally returned to the League in 1986 with the desire to reduce the number of mid-table clubs with nothing to play for at the end of the season. The Nationwide Conference introduced playoffs in 2002 after the Football League agreed to a two club exchange with the Conference.

Related Topics:
1986 - Nationwide Conference - 2002

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The top two teams in the Football League Championship and in Football League One are automatically promoted and thus do not compete in the playoffs as are the top three teams in Football League Two and the champion of Conference National. In each of these divisions the four clubs finishing below the automatic promotion places compete in two-legged semi-finals with the higher-placed club enjoying home advantage in the second leg. The away goals rule does not apply for the semi-finals. The Football League playoff finals are one-off affairs which are normally played at Wembley Stadium in London, but while that stadium is being rebuilt the finals are taking place at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

Related Topics:
Football League Championship - Football League One - Football League Two - Conference National - Away goals rule - Wembley Stadium - London - Millennium Stadium - Cardiff - Wales

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In 2003 Gillingham F.C. proposed replacing the current playoff system with one involving six clubs from each division and replacing the two-legged ties with one-off matches—if adopted the two higher-placed clubs in the playoffs would have enjoyed first-round byes and home advantage in the semi-finals. It was a controversial proposal—some people did not believe a club finishing eighth in the League could compete in the Premiership while others found the system too American for their liking. Although League chairmen initially voted in favour of the proposal, it was blocked by The FA and soon abandoned.

Related Topics:
2003 - Gillingham F.C. - Premiership - American - The FA

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In addition to its league competitions, English football also has two major knockout competitions - the FA Cup and the League Cup. However, these competitions are open to many more teams than would be found in an American-style playoff—92 clubs compete for the League Cup, and hundreds compete for the FA Cup. In addition, these competitions run concurrently with the "regular season" league competitions and therefore do not even remotely resemble the sort of playoffs familiar to American sports fans.

Related Topics:
FA Cup - League Cup

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