I hate the play-offs

I hate the play-offs.

The whole idea is an abomination – it goes against all idea of the old sporting principle that ‘winner takes all’. The only reason for it is to rake in extra money.

I hate the whole idea – and I am somewhat ashamed that it came about as a result of an ex-Bee’s chairman.

So what do I see as wrong with the play-offs?

Well, to begin with the idea of any competitive sporting contest is to have a winner and a loser. If you’re good enough – you win. If you’re not – tough titty, you lost.

It is preached throughout the whole nine months of the season that “football is a marathon, not a sprint” – yet when it all comes down to it, after finishing the marathon just two teams have to sprint to the finish in one match to decide who gets the prize.

For the players who’ve battled it out for 46 or so games over the season – come rain, wind or shine – promotion could mean a pay rise and an increase in status, in some cases it could even mean the difference between having contracts renewed or cancelled. Why should any of them have to wait for almost a month to see if they get the right rewards for their efforts? Why should they get any rewards for not being quite good enough?

In that respect, throw in the ‘delights’ of the TV take-over of the game. Because of television requirements, play-off teams have (in the main) to play two semi-finals within 48 hours of each other, then wait a whopping two weeks or so before the actual final. Ridiculous.

I know the box – and the extra games – bring in extra revenue for the clubs, but I repeat, this is meant to be a sporting occasion… not a TV entertainment and money machine.

If clubs want the extra revenue – let them play extra games. If necessary, add two more clubs to each division – that’s income from four more games for each club – and let everyone play out ‘the marathon’ so the overall three teams that get promotion in each league will have won it truly and fairly and on merit..

I won’t go into the rights and wrongs of extra football spreading into the traditional sports time of others sports like athletics, tennis or cricket, but what about the clubs who just miss out on  automatic promotion – i.e. one club that finished third and three more who actually failed – they have to keep staff, grounds, players and the rest on tap… I don’t know how much it costs to run a club for a week, but here are clubs having to lay out four times that sum in the hope (a failing hope in three cases) that they may eventually get the extra riches of promotion.

Just suppose we had this kind of thing in other spheres. Say – you go for a job interview, and the boss tells you that you are the best person to take on – but you have to go up against three other not-so-good candidates to see whether or not they can give you the work. Is that fair? What if you, as the best person, miss out?

In the London Olympics, what if British cycling’s Victoria Pendleton or 400-meter runner Christine Ohuruogu were told- ‘Yes, you finished second, but we can’t give you a silver medal until you’ve run off against three others who finished behind you’? Would that have been fair?

So overall, in my opinion the whole idea of the play-offs is frankly despicable. They should have no part in any occasion – let alone a sporting occasion. They are downright wrong, and I detest the whole idea.

Larry Signy

This article was written before any of the play-offs, of any division.

Its worth noting that while the League One lottery luckily involved the third and fourth teams, it was third versus fifth in the Championship (and fifth won) – while in League Two, Bradford, who finished in seventh place no less than seven points behind third place, got to the final to play Northampton, who finished sixth – and they, too, won.

PS: Hypocrite that I am – I was at Wembley!