Premier League Plans Championship Playoffs

[QPR Report]

Guardian/David Conn

Premier League plans play-off for last Champions League place• Team as low as seventh could be given chance to qualify
• Manchester Unitend, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool object


The Premier League is considering introducing a play-off system to determine the fourth club to qualify for the following season's European Champions League.

Currently the club which finishes fourth goes through but the new proposal would mean a play-off between the clubs finishing fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. The intention is to inject more competition into a league in which qualification has for years remained in the hands of the same four clubs.

Premier League sources have confirmed that the play-off proposal was presented at the most recent meeting of all clubs, on 4 February, and the league's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, was authorised to return with further details in April.

It is understood that the idea was enthusiastically supported by all clubs – except the so-called big four of Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. Scudamore, and the league's secretary, Mike Foster, will examine the practicalities of how a play-off system could work: whether it should take the form of a home-and-away knockout system, similar to that in the Football League, or incorporate seeding. They will also look into when matches could be fitted into a crowded fixture calendar before making recommendations.

The idea was presented as part of the Premier League's strategic review of its format and operations and springs from two particular motivations. The first is to crack the problem of England's top league becoming less open and competitive, with the richest clubs, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, having strengthened their hold on the top four places over several years. One league source said it was an odd twist that the idea has been raised now, in a season when Liverpool's claim to the fourth place is being seriously challenged.

The response among clubs outside the top four is understood to have been positive, with some believing that a play-off system would create more competitive matches and give more clubs a prize to challenge for. Most clubs now feel they have no chance of attaining fourth place but almost the whole Premier League could be brought into a competition to finish seventh and make it to the play-offs. The medium-sized clubs, which increasingly aspire to break the cartel, are said to have been enthusiastic, seeing play-offs as a great opportunity.

The big four, who have been qualifying on merit at the end of each season and reaping the footballing and financial rewards of Champions League participation are understood to have been less keen. Self-interest is clearly a factor, with those clubs concerned about protecting their own advantages. However, there is also a feeling that the league should be more sophisticated about addressing its major challenges, particularly the financial ones, rather than incorpor-ating an awkward play-off system for a prize as ostensibly moderate as fourth place.

The other motivation for the play-offs is a waning of the proposal for an international round of matches, dubbed "Game 39", which was widely criticised for lacking coherence and being territorially expansionist. The play-offs would mean extra matches, which would be sold to pay-television and so generate more money for all clubs.

The consistent qualification of the same four clubs, widely seen as stifling competition, is not replicated across Europe. The Premier League largely blames the Uefa Champions League money, distributed to participating clubs, for entrenching the big four's financial power. Uefa, however, points out that Champions League income represents a small part, 8–13%, of Manchester United's, Chelsea's, Arsenal's and Liverpool's total turnover. Most of the big clubs' money is made in this country; Premier League television income is relatively evenly distributed but United, Chelsea and Arsenal in particular make much more than their nearest rivals from commercial activities and match-day revenues in the Premier League.

The Dutch league tried a play-off system for the second Champions League qualification place but abandoned it after the 2007-08 season, when FC Twente Enschede beat Ajax 2-1. The issues in Holland were the risk of crowd trouble at such high-stakes matches and a perception that the play-offs were one-sided.

In the Premier League there is some confidence that neither of those would present major problems. As a means of encouraging competition, opportunities and increasing income, the play-off proposal already seems to have enough support to suggest it could gain the necessary 14-6 majority to be implemented.



www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/14/premier-league-play-off-champions-league

[londonranger]

Well thats on anxiety we wont be troubled with,

[toboboly]

Would prefer it to go to the FA Cup winner. But this is a step in the right direction.

[eastpaddoknutta]

something needs to happen with the way the top four dominate

[Hogan]

Great idea, so it surely wont happen.......

[blockhead]

danger danger, this was tried in Holland, FC twente knocked out Ajax and then went on to do badly in the competition, thus reducing the number of Dutch teams eligible for all European competitions.

Big four wont go for it in case it means only three or two english teams the next time round.

Keep the cartel cosy.

[QPR Report]

Guardian

Play-off for fourth Champions League place has dangers, warn clubs• West Ham co-owner fears overspending for possible gain
• Everton manager points to greater fixture congestion

Owen Gibson and Dominic Fifield The Guardian, Tuesday 16

Uefa yesterday gave the green light to embryonic Premier League proposals to introduce a play-off system for the fourth Champions League spot in a bid to extend the possibility of qualification beyond the usual suspects.

But while the idea was immediately welcomed by some of those chairmen and owners who would stand to benefit, there were also warnings that it could encourage clubs already teetering on a financial precipice to live further beyond their means in the hope of reaching the promised land. West Ham's new co-owner David Gold supported the idea but worried it could "rush clubs to the brink" because owners "simply can't be trusted to run our clubs within sensible financial restraints".

The proposal, tabled at a Premier League meeting earlier this month to a broadly supportive welcome from all 16 clubs outside the so-called "Big Four", will also be welcomed by broadcasters and sponsors who could be guaranteed bumper audiences for critical end-of-season games.

But a range of others, possibly including Fabio Capello and the FA chief executive, Ian Watmore, might hear alarm bells. For Capello, who has already expressed concerns about the short space of time afforded England teams between the end of the season and the beginning of major tournaments, it would mean more high-pressure matches at the end of the campaign. For Watmore, currently wrestling with a range of ideas to reinvigorate the FA Cup including midweek matches and experimental rule changes, the development would see top-flight clubs even less focused on the tournament.

Uefa said yesterday it was down to national leagues to decide how to structure qualification for the Champions League and the Europa League. While Uefa is responsible for setting the rules and maintaining the co-efficient tables that decided how many clubs qualify from each country, it is down to domestic leagues to decide how they are allocated.

"I would welcome this idea. The top clubs wouldn't, of course, but it would broaden the opportunity for everybody else to make their mark and make the Premier League even more exciting," said Gold.

Stoke City's chairman, Peter Coates, was also enthusiastic. "I think the introduction of the play-offs in the Football League has proved one of the very best, if not the best, innovation of recent years. It's worked very well and offered clubs added incentive through the season, and there's no reason to think it would not be as successful in the Premier League."

But David Moyes, the Everton manager who is this season juggling the demands of the Europa League with the domestic programme, said it would raise concerns for managers and risked devaluing the Premier League. Everton would have qualified for the play-offs five times in Moyes' seven seasons at Goodison Park but yesterday he said the Premier League would have to address the issue of fixture congestion and the integrity of its competition.

"While it might be quite exciting, we play 38 Premier League games and that is where you should be judged," he said. "Where are you going to fit this programme in with all the international and European games that are flying round at the end of the season? And say it is Tottenham, who finish fourth after an unbelievable season and they get beaten by a team who finish seventh having worked so hard?"

And Gold reflected fears elsewhere in the game when he wondered aloud whether it would simply encourage clubs that in recent years had overreached themselves to gamble further. "What you're saying is this could rush clubs to the brink of the precipice. A bizarre notion but it's true. That you pursue success and, in doing so, go bust. That's why we have to do more than just pursue a more exciting division. We have a responsibility to protect it and nurture what is currently the greatest football league the world has ever known. And we have to face up to the fact that we can't be trusted," he said.

"We are a bit like alcoholics. The first thing we have to do is accept that we have a problem. Until we do so we all face becoming the next Leeds United or Ports­mouth. We are all in denial. All 20 clubs, collectively, must come together to save ourselves from ourselves. We need leadership, we need to take the first step towards financial sanity. If we don't we truly face the abyss."

www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/16/premier-league-champions-league-play-offs