In America as we speak, the MLS season is entering the final straight. Having seen the Eastern and Western Conference competitions completed, the top eight teams now take part in a play-off series where the MLS Cup is at stake for those who can negotiate their way through the tricky knock-out section.
For those of us living outside the States, an end-of-season contest such as this may seem a little alien. In Europe for instance, the league competition is all there is. Whoever finishes at the top of the table after everyone's played everyone else home and away is the outright winner. It's always been like that and probably always will be.
Yet could a play-off series in the style of that used in the MLS be a success for the Premier League? Don't write off the idea for a moment - let's think this through a little…
First of all, play-offs in general. While some of you may think they're surplus to requirements, they do undoubtedly generate much excitement for the watching masses. Anyone that's seen the Football League play-offs over the past decade or so would find it difficult not to agree.
Next, we know what you're thinking - they'd generate more money for the teams involved, and that, of course, means the teams that are among the best in the country anyway. In England, you might argue that they're not short of money in the first place, so by way of a solution let's suggest that all play-off money goes to charity or something. There - that's that little issue sorted…
If you're still in need of a little persuasion, let's loosely apply the MLS play-off model to last season's Premier League table. Obviously the Premier League isn't split into an East and West Conference (although a North and South one might be interesting - discuss), so let's just take the top eight teams and see how the quarter finals would have looked:
Manchester United (1) v Reading (8)
Chelsea (2) v Bolton Wanderers (7)
Liverpool (3) v Everton (6)
Arsenal (4) v Tottenham Hotspur (5)
* Final positions shown in brackets.
Now who doesn't find the prospect of seeing two derby matches mouth-watering, eh? And before you say the other two games would be one-sided, think again: if you take the aggregate scores from the two meetings last season into consideration, Man United would beat Reading 4-3 and Chelsea would beat Bolton 3-2. Even they'd be potentially close encounters.
Continuing the aggregate score theme, you'd then end up with semi-finals that contained Man United, Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea. Whichever way you serve those four up, you'll get a couple of great games to lead into the grand final.
So there it is, the case for play-offs at the end of a Premier League season. Who's ready to sign the petition?
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
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12 comments:
NO NO NO NO NO!!!
Brash American commercialization does not apply here. The Coca Cola League cup is already pooh poohed, a EPL Cup would make the regular season less meaningful, just as it has in the MLS. An EPL cup would make the League Cup obselete and the FA Cup more like the US Cup- a nothing competion for MLS B teams...
Destroying or diluting traditions are something like interleague (baseball) play- you get a little excitement but not much else. Besides, seeing the defensive show of the opening MLS Playoffs- 3 goals in 4 games, or 0.75 goals a game- Keeper of the Yr stats- "Socctober" (trying to fight back the rising bile) goes out not with a bang but a whimper. This is similar to putting all ones eggs in Golden Ball's basket. If "Playoffs"- with all their spectacular gaudiness and over the top promotion- desperately need Viagra- what then? (just like the Becks injury let down)
Winning the MLS Supporters Shield is hardly noticed- you want to do this to the EPL as well???
The Premier League already has, as anonymous said, knock-out competitions, the FA Cup and the League Cup.
I'd much rather see MLS abandon the play-offs and add more matches to the end of the season (whether through additional teams or whatever). I have a feeling they are going to do this eventually, but they need to make it more palatable to the typical American by keeping it a similar structure to other sports, at least until (if) it develops a large enough following. I know several of the coaches (typically guys from South America or Europe or who have played in South America or Europe) would like to see this, as well.
Agreed. But I don't see the need to add extra games. I think they should concentrate on expanding the CONCACAF CL and the possibility of entering the copa lib. They should also take the US open cup more seriously and shift it toward the end of season (ala FA Cup) to put more of a spotlight on it. Then you won't need playoffs.
Also, leave the EPL alone. And don't even think about playing real games here. As much as I would love to see liverpool without paying $1000 for the flight over, I wouldn't want them to give away a home fixture that could end up costing them the title.
I live in Australia and down here our league has a play-off at the end.
Most traditionalists despise the play-off format for a few simple reasons.
Why play a whole season of games only to see the team that scraped into 4th place claim the title? The winner of the final always gets the greater recognition than the minor premier (the team that finished the league season on the top of the ladder) yet it is often the Minor Premier that is the better team apart from 1 or 2 finals games.
Fans are less likely to turn up for regular season games, preferring to turn up when the finals are on (Melbourne sold out their grand final match 50000+ supporters but had 20000 less supporters during the season).
The final rounds of the season are only exciting for those teams fighting for the last play off berths.
Most importantly for the EPL, what becomes of the FA Cup? It too is a play-off of sorts.
I appreciate the fair-minded approach. Frankly, given the fact the Premiership has no salary cap means a playoff system is not the worst idea -- it introduces an element of chance to level up the playing field that a straight league denies.
Discussing the FA Cup etc is a red herring as everything outside the Premiership and Champions League has been completely devalued as the latter two competitions are so much more richly rewarded.
Would the fans want it?
Still, another day out at Wembley for some clubs, and a lucrative financial package to boot, surely?
My impression is that the MLS would ideally like to use the european style of one league, one winner but use the Play-off system to appeal to a new audience. The play-offs in England I reckon were only inroduced to keep interest and attendances high towards the end of the season.
If they don't need a play-off then I would suggest it would be fairer to leave them out.
Playoffs in American sports came about through the growth of the sports and consolidation of multiple leagues. When the AFL and NFL joined, they had the first "Super Bowl" to prove which league had the best team.
It was more like the CL, if a team from Spain were to play a team from England. Two different pools of teams and players, with different strategies and styles would play each other for the first time to prove their superiority. The same occurred with the ABA and the NBA, though a combination of teams and players were absorbed rather than a straight merger. Since the mergers, though, teams from each conference play each other, so it's diminished the aura of two teams who had previously not seen each other.
The MLS went to a playoff format because all American sports do it. The league has no history of it, nor does the sport in general. I understand the argument that it makes it more palatable for the masses here, but I fear being stuck in a system simply because it was the format from the league's inception. "Because it always has been" is a poor policy with which to run any business. It's great to keep traditions, but there must be a reason.
I don't like the idea of a season-ending playoff for the Premier League title, but how about this -- a four-team, Football League-style playoff for the fourth and final Champions League spot?
(4) Arsenal v. (7) Bolton
(5) Tottenham Hotspur v. (6) Everton
Winner goes to the Champions League. Losers get dumped into the UEFA Cup. Wouldn't THAT make things more interesting at the top of the table?
I like your thinking, Permanent4, but we are currently only assurend of TWO Champions League places, winners and runners-up obviously.
The other places are dependant on that countries performance in the champions League itself, and even then, as this year, the clubs in third and fourth still have to go through a Chmapions League qualification phase as both Liverpool and Arsenal did this season.
It kills the league.. We have it in Holland and the numbers 2-5 play for the CL play-off spot. It doesn't make sense, I know..But the number 5 of holland basically could be in the CL if they win a few games in this play-off system even if the have ended the league with 20 points less than the original number 2.
Anyway..Lots of complaints in Holland and I don't think it will survive the upcoming years. .
That said, funny thing happened in the play-off of the 05/06 season... When Feyenoord managed to beat Ajax both home and away in the 2005/06 season, the Rotterdam side launched a DVD celebrating 'the double' over their archrivals Ajax Amstedam. They obviousley forgot about the play-off at the end of the season..as they were defeated twice (3-0 & 2-4) in the space of less than a week by Ajax during the play-off, leaving Ajax to play for the CL spot play-off, and Feyenoord having a meaningless DVD..
This would never had happened without the play-off so it can bring some excitement I quess :-)
You can introduce some of the excitment of a play-off but keep the sanctity of the home-and-away system intact.
Basically, you need to arrange the fixture list so all of the top-4 teams are playing each other in March, April and May. The same applies to the relegation teams.
You can use the league table from the season before as a barometer of where teams will finish next season.
So at the end of the season there will be lots of six-pointers. It's the middle-ground between bone-fide play-offs and playing huge games at random times of the year (like Liverpool v Arsenal in October...that would have been an even better game in April or May).
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