For all traditional Premier league football fans, the thought of a play-off in the premiership is not even worth considering. But, in many leagues and other sports play-off’s and other different ways of structuring a league are successful.
Arguably, a play-off system in the premier league to decide the overall winners would reduce the importance of some of the usual fixtures within the season. But, on the other hand, a play off between the top two at the end of the season would guarantee an exciting end to every premier league season. It could also see every premier league season finished off at Wembley, which would be fitting for the team that won. Although, the motivation to finish top of the league would be reduced and potential meaningless fixtures could occur throughout a season.
A play off between 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th to decide European positions would create an exciting, hard fought end to a premier league season. 3rd and 4th placed teams could have home ties as a reward for finishing above the 5th and 6th placed teams in the league to still keep the motivation to get as high as possible in the table. It is fair to say, any plan to do this or something similar would be hugely unpopular with the top sides, but more favourable from more of the mid-table teams. This sort of change could open up the league, and could potentially give the opportunity to a side that hasn’t experience European football in a while, to have a shot at playing Europe’s top sides. If smaller clubs were to experience more European football, the wealth gap between the county’s top sides and the rest would decrease allowing a more competitive and exciting premier league.
A ‘wildcard’ is another option that could be looked upon. Used in a few sports, most frequently in Speedway, this would see each team have one wildcard a season which they can place on any game they wish, and however many points they get in that game would be doubled as a result. This would create more tactics into the game, and automatically apply more pressure onto a team as more points would be at stake.
Understandably, any occurrence like this is likely to be hugely unpopular with many fans, clubs and players but the premier league should not shy away from change that could potentially rejuvenate the top flight of English football.
Jamie Hopkins