Premier League to Use Playoffs for Fourth Champions League Spot?

By: Daryl | February 15th, 2010

cranium-party-playoff-box As Rob noted last week, the Premier League top four is looking very familiar. Despite the many optimistic predictions that Man City, Spurs or Villa would break into the Champions League places this season, right now it goes: Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, yawn. The Big Four will get bigger, amd everyone else can fight over those Europa League places that they don’t really want.

The Premier League clubs seem to recognize the problem, and apparently a solution of sorts was proposed when the clubs met on February 4th. The Big Four teams to start on -10 points? Drogba, Rooney, Fabregas and Torres to play with their boots on the wrong feet? Nothing quite that wacky unfortunately, but certainly a bit of a shake up. The proposal is that the fourth and final Champions League spot would be decided by a playoff between the clubs finishing fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.

I think I like this. If finishing as low as seventh gets you Champions League football, then hopefully the current Big Four monopoly would be broken up, which would add some much needed variety to both the Premier League and the Champions League. Also: How exciting would the actual playoffs be? I say very.

So, how likely is this to happen?

Well, a proposal apparently needs the support of 14 out of 20 Premier League clubs to pass. The Big Four themselves would most likely vote against the move (why vote yourself out of the palace, right?) but if the 16 other clubs vote in favour, then that’s more than enough.

Obviously this wouldn’t happen straight away. We’re probably talking a few years down the line. And there’s maybe an argument that it’s unfair that the fourth place team, who are the fourth best league team on merit, could lose their Champions League place to the seventh place team. But in my opinion the Premier League is getting too stale, and has been too predictable for too long. It’s time for a shake up.

- For more on this, including how Game 39 might come into play, read Rob’s take on Prem Offside.

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Category: English Premier League

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alecto

I dont think that this is a good idea.It would be injustice to the team which have worked hard for an entire season to finish at a top place(fourth).A team which has finished 7th(and not performed consistently) would need just two good games to get into UCL.Europe's elite competition should be available only for the teams who truly deserve it and have played well over the whole season and not just for two games.
Creaven

I wrote about why I think the playoff system is a fantastic idea on my blog which you can read here: http://intelligentsoccer.com/?...
Daryl

It used to be like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... (1st place gets CL spot, 2nd to 5th all playoff for other CL spot, with losers getting Europa League places)

However, now it seems that: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

1st and 2nd get CL spots. 3rd and 4th get EL spots, then 5th to 9th (or lower depedning on cup winner) playoff for one remaining EL spot.

Though there are similarities, the situation in the Prem is obviously very different because there are twice as many CL spots to go around.
BVBfan

How does (or did) it work in the eredivisie?
Rory

This would work for the same reason that the FA is better than the Copa del Rey: The law of averages needs a large data set to hold true.
Daryl

I'm not so sure Joseph. A team like Villa or Spurs would surely has a better chance of beating Liverpool or Arsenal in a single playoff game, than over a 38 game season (where the bigger squad gives the bigger team a sustained advantage).
Joseph

This is bullshit. So far what I've read regarding potential playoffs claim that this will favor smaller clubs but it is the total opposite. This would protect the big four if a miracle does happen and they fail to reach 4th spot. You have to know they'll overpower teams throughout the playoff.