Stupid, stupid Premier League

[Reece]

Not if they were in the UEFA cup you wouldn't.

I meant you'd be missing out on them all playing together in the same tournament.

[Kenneth]

I meant you'd be missing out on them all playing together in the same tournament.

I'd cope.

[Kenneth]

People are such ****ing mongs these days. Success by merrit is a bit dull and means that the average pleb off the street/midtable club can't instantly rise to the top. We need a more random system to give everyone a chance. Why don't we just have a ****ing public phone vote for the CL nominations and get a few thick slags to give their opinion beforehand? It's the 'modern way'.

[Exiled_red]

The other thing is there are also 'playoffs' in the form of qualifiers for the 4th place team to qualify for the champions league anyway at the start of the season. If you added a play off in the domestic league to qualify for this at the end of the season how long would that make the season? It would add on a couple of weeks to the end of the season as well as a couple at the start. I couldn't imagine this would please international managers in world cup or european championship years.

There's also another issue, would it really make the league more competitive? If the team in 4th has a big gap over the team in 7th or 8th but is well behind the team in 3rd is it not more likely to encourage them to rest players for the playoffs affecting other results (the championship and relegation), ok there may be slight advantages in finishing 4th compared to 5th, 6th or 7th in terms of an easier draw, but there'd be little point expending energy to get 4th when all that matters is the playoff games.

[Reece]

I'd cope.

I'm happy for you.

[Kenneth]

Anyone got any ciggies?

[Exiled_red]

People are such ****ing mongs these days. Success by merrit is a bit dull and means that the average pleb off the street/midtable club can't instantly rise to the top. We need a more random system to give everyone a chance. Why don't we just have a ****ing public phone vote for the CL nominations and get a few thick slags to give their opinion beforehand? It's the 'modern way'.

We'll have Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan controlling football before you know it...

[Kenneth]

The only reason we have 4 places in the CL is because of the success of English teams to date. If we put a weaker team forward (and nobody is going to tell me the team in 5th/6th7th is no worse than the team in 4th) theres more chance we'd lose the place.

[Scratch]

Scratch: Still can't get my head around the idea that the team in 4th isn't likely to be any better than the team in 7th. Following that through, who's to say the champions are any better than the team in 4th?

The idea of creating a play-off format to keep things interesting etc is part of the same thinking that has brought us teams playing music when they score. There is nothing wrong with the game of football, it doesn't need pissing around with to make it more entertaining. If you don't like it, **** off and watch a different sport (not you Scratch).

Normally, 4th is someway distant from the top two teams...in fact, that 4th spot is closer in terms of points to 5th, 6th, 7th, so yeah, i reckon the 7th placed team could do quite well. What's to say that 4th, and 25 points of the leaders will do far better than 7th and 30 points of the top?

Personally, i'd have it from 4th to 7th, but have 6th (home) play 7th, then 5th (home) play the winner of that match, then 4th (home) play the winner of that match...so the 4th placed team has the advantage of playing only 1 game at home, whilst those finishing lower have to play more (and away)...gives 4th a better chance of qualifying, which is fair as they finished the season higher placed in the league.

[BFG]

I think the Champions League is great in it's current format. Leave it alone. And if it was restricted to only the champions of each country, you'd be missing out some of Europe's elite teams every season.

The idea of the CL seems to be that the big European sides play each other more often and it works. If we went back to the old format the UEFA Cup would be the stronger and more lucrative competition. I'm not sure Barca would be so pleased to see Madrid playing AC Milan, Liverpool and Chelsea on the way to the UEFA Cup final while they're travelling all over Europe to play the winners of the Swiss, Swedish and Romanian leagues.

[-V-]

Its fine the way it is. It works.

This season the battle for 4th is intense. Technically we can still aim for 3rd if we pick up our form. But there are 3 teams that can break into the top 4 this season and thats enough competition, it makes no sense to add a further play-off system

[The_weatherman]

It’s ****ing ridiculous. As you say, why try and change things that work, and have worked for years and years.

I hate all the ****ing suits, that seem intent on ruining the sport. Football is football – the problems is, you have a load of ****ing suits be it at the fa, premier league, uefa or fifa that sit around, do **** all and have to justify their existence. So every now and then they change something so it looks they are doing their jobs. – if it’s not trying to change the game itself ie ****ing round with the offside rule etc, it’s a change to make them more ****ing money. The 39th game, which iirc they wanted to be played around the globe was ****ing shocking but this.......

For a start the fixture pile up, at the end of a season would be horrendous. – ie, take Chelsea – they could find themselves with, firstly in January, half a dozen players playing in the African nations – when they return, they could be in the semi finals of the carling cup, going through the rounds of the fa cup, progressing in the champions league etc – the games pile up, they slip into 4th in the league, and find themselves with fa cup final, champions league semi and potential final and as well as the remaining league games, another 2 play off matches, and a potential play off final in the space of like a month at the end of the season – which once completed, a week later the whole squad **** off to the world cup for June/July and then return again for pre-season and probably champions league qualifying rounds in august - they’d be ****ed

They are only thinking about the money! Some tit has said, we can raise £xxxxxxxxx’s – for starters there would be 4 play-off matches that the tv and sponsors would be all over, and finally a big cup final at Wembley.

Craig h – don’t even mention the potential of having a play-off for the league – that will be next.

Some money man, who has never played a game in his life has prob spent too much time watching American sports.
It would be long before the split the game into quarters so they can get more adverts in.

Unbelievable really, and of course the other teams will vote for it but it's so stupid really, a play off for fourth place Just saying it aloud feels stupid.......maybe because I'm alone in the office though!

And I agree that it would probably not be long until we'd some other changes, playoff for the last UEFA cup place or relegation until the league finish doesn't really matter, then people will stop attending some of the league games and the suits think "we have to come up with a new idea to attract attendance".

And yes the gap between the teams in fourth and seventh usually is quite big, we are fighting for fourth now and we have had the mother of all nightmare seasons, and still in it. If Birmingham had gone through what we have they'd be fighting for relegation. If we must we'll beat those teams in playoffs, I'm fairly certain of that and I'm not even sure if there will be much demand for the game between Tottenham and Aston Villa in the playoffs either.

Stupid idea.

[Kenneth]

The idea of the CL seems to be that the big European sides play each other more often and it works. If we went back to the old format the UEFA Cup would be the stronger and more lucrative competition. I'm not sure Barca would be so pleased to see Madrid playing AC Milan, Liverpool and Chelsea on the way to the UEFA Cup final while they're travelling all over Europe to play the winners of the Swiss, Swedish and Romanian leagues.

Yeah, that's a good point.

[Scratch]

And yes the gap between the teams in fourth and seventh usually is quite big

04/05 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 34 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 6
05/06 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 24 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 9
06/07 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 21 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 12
07/08 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 11 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 18
08/09 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 18 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 19

It ain't that big in reality....only in the past two seasons has 4th been closer to 1st than it has to 7th, with last year only one point in it. And with more teams joining that scrap now...Villa, Spurs, City etc, I expect this season the gap between 4th and 7th will be minimal, whilst the gap to the champions will be 20+ points...

...so yes, i'd reckon 7th would have just as much of a fighting chance as 4th...ie not much.

[The_weatherman]

04/05 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 34 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 6
05/06 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 24 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 9
06/07 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 21 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 12
07/08 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 11 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 18
08/09 - Gap from 1st to 4th: 18 ---- Gap from 4th to 7th: 19

It ain't that big in reality....only in the past two seasons has 4th been closer to 1st than it has to 7th, with last year only one point in it. And with more teams joining that scrap now...Villa, Spurs, City etc, I expect this season the gap between 4th and 7th will be minimal, whilst the gap to the champions will be 20+ points...

...so yes, i'd reckon 7th would have just as much of a fighting chance as 4th...ie not much.

I don't really care about how big it is in points, although on average it ahas been 14.5 points these four years and increasing, but the teams in fourth are usually also battling on three or four fronts as well. The teams who have finished fourth in recent years have been markedly better IMO. This year is different maybe due to the difficulties surrounding Liverpool but next year it will be the top four or five standing out, IMO.

But let's argue that the gap is not much and the teams are close, well then I don't see any point in a play-off really, let them just fight it out over the fair playground that is the league. Because another point is that over the course of a season luck is supposed to even out, but in the play offs a single wrong decision can shape the future of teams, which would be unfair, the league table is the best barometer and was probably invented to keep the score for some purpose.