Play-off Rant

By rwakeley14/6/2018 11:52Thu Jun 14 11:52:20 2018

Views: 2371

I've just absorbed the lastest FA implementation regarding the play-offs. I'm not even angry anymore. So the intention of the shake-up was to play less games and reduce traveling time/expenditures. Mission accomplished. Now its going to take an additional play-off fixture. Heaven forbid you start that journey away. 3 potential away games, presumably in a week, literally anywhere across the whole Southern bottom third. Imagine that - 2 away in Dorset and a third in Suffolk - one's bound to be mid-week and one on a Bank Holiday.
It gets even more palatable. Last season there was a 19 point gap between the play-off sides in our division and the cut-off. So now we have the genuine possibility of a team finishing 7th (with no more than around 75 points), becoming 3 games away from promotion. This makes a complete mockery of an entire league campaign.
With dodgy winter pitches and a possible 2 legged Southern League Cup Final thrown in the mix, the end of the season is effectively a wonky lab experiment. I don't think it's remotely fair on clubs, players and supporters - just about anybody who actually gives a damn in the first place. If it ain't broke in the first place then don't fix it. Even with regards to the advantage being given to the team with most points, that's a bit rich when teams finishing mid-stream are invited to the party. If the play-offs have to in-corporate separate divisions, then surely less is more - maybe at neutral venues. At least make it a proper cup final. I cannot see one single benefit of this.