Well in contrast to most team sports a play off system is not common in football (Soccer). So it is hard to get used to it! But would you considers a play off format to crown the champion an added value or not?
Jupiler Pro League!
Since 2009 the Belgian top football competition is played with a play off. Not comparable to the most common play offs we do know in other sports.
In most sports where a play off is used to decided who will win the competition a elimination format is used. In some cases in only one game it will be decided who will go through to the next round (NFL), others do use a best of x-games to see who deserves it to go to the next round (NBA, NHL).
But in Belgium of course we do it differently! The top 6 of the ranking will be playing the Play offs. All points earned during the regular competition are halved are used in the ranking of Play Off 1.
In play off 2, the teams do start with a clean board and all points are just rest to 0!
In both play off the round robin principle is used with a home and away game against all other teams in the group!
Why?
I do think that the most important reason to implement a play off competition is just money! The number of teams in the Jupiler Pro League was decreased from 18 to 16, meaning less games. But because mostly the top teams do qualify for the play off, this means 5 extra interesting home games per season! Also the television channel were interested in the format and did paid a lot of more money for the broadcasting right!
The explanation from the teams who did voted for this format was that playing 10 more top games will improve the quality of the teams! What they did fortget was that so much is at stake, that most games are awfull and some even boring!
Halving of the points!
Lots of people do considers this unfair, but in contrast it is a brillant move! You can be 10 points back at the end of the competition and still have the feeling to you can take the tittle. Because at the start of the play off the 10 points are halved into 5! If you would win both games against the leader you would be suddenly 1 point ahead of them!
In the first 2 rounds of the PO, all teams actually still think that they can win the tittle. This makes this interesting. Take for instance this season, Genk did end the competition with a lead of 7 points. This would have ment that they should have been the champion 2 games before the competition ended. But due to the Play off format they still had to collect points in the last 2 games. Every point does count!
Now the lead is only 4 points! So Brugge, Standard and maybe even Anderlecht still have a shot at the tittle!
Also they did want to give the regular competition still a meaning. What would be the point if some teams know 3 or 4 rounds before the end of the compeition that they are qualified but that at the start of the competition all points would be reset to 0. That would open a number of scenarios to onofficial match fixing!
Premier League
Suppose that the Premier League would introduce the same kind of Play offs and let's assume that the current ranking would be the final one.
This would mean that Liverpool, Machester City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea would play a mini competition among them selves. 10 rounds with all great games. Each round would be 3 top games on it!
Liverpool would start the PO with a 1 point lead over City, but even Chelsea would be only 9 points back. And with all these tough games there would be no gaurantee that Liverpool of City would be crowned the winner of the Premie League!
It is not unthinkable that Liverpool would loose 2 games in a row, for instance against Tottenham and City, resulting that if Chelsea would have won both their games that the only would be 3 points back. Imagine then Chelsea - Liverpool as the next game, wouldn't that be interesting?
What you like to see such a format in your preferred football competition?
The Belgian Play Offs betting wise!
30 games in total. I will place a single bet on all games, let's see if I can come out a winner!
Cheers,
Peter
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