da fazobetai： It is one of the most watched football games in the season, as well as being one of the wealthiest, the Championship play off. The players on the pitch know they are merely 90 mins away from potentially reaching the fabled land of the Premier League. Last season, Watford and Crystal Palace were the clubs competing for the rights to make the trips to Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and Anfield, and The Eagles were the lucky ones to win this honour.
da aposte e ganhe： However, is the format for promotions and relegations throughout English football a fair one, and should there be consideration for adjustments to be made? Currently, as everyone knows three teams are relegated from the Premiership, with three teams going up, two automatically, and one through the play off system. It is a similar story between the Championship and League 1, however then it begins to become questionable.
Four teams get relegated from League 1 into League 2, and as such, three teams achieve automatic promotion, with another going up via the playoffs, yet only two teams suffer the pain of relegation out of the football league and in to the conference. Ten years ago, this would be disastrous for a team, and granted, it is still not fun by any stretch of the imagination, however there is now a considerable number of former league teams battling it out, most of whom are now fully professional, a distinct change from a decade ago. What infuriates me however is the fact that all of these teams, such as Lincoln, Luton, Chester, Wrexham, Cambridge, Grimbsy, the list it continuous, but all of them are battling for one automatic space to get promoted, whilst the next four then enter the play offs for the second and last spot to return to the football league.
Perhaps it is a little bias on my part. Being a Luton Town fan means I am desperate to see the club return to League football, however I would like to think I would feel the same even if we were still in The Championship or League 1. The facts simply speak for themselves, as evidenced by the progress some recent teams have made since their promotion from the fifth tier in football. Since the 2002-2003 season, two teams now play in the Championship, three in League 1, and 13 in League 2. More impressive perhaps is that in the last decade, 4 teams who have been promoted from the Conference have gone on to secure automatic promotion from League 2 up to League 1 the season immediately after.
It could be argued that a system such as that employed in Germany is one that should be considered in England, and applied down through till the Conference now, given the rise of squads turning professional within the league. In Germany, the system works so that there is 2 automatic promotion spots available, thus 2 automatic relegation spots as well, however the team which finishes third last in the league embarks on a two-legged play off match against the team which finished third top within the league below. This would still be a sensational spectacle for all to watch, and would ensure only those who truly deserve promotion achieve it. It would certainly make promotion a harder task, with a top 3 finish being required to have any chance, however it does mean that a team who finishes 7th for example in League 2, who then go to become victorious in the playoffs, despite perhaps not having deserved over the course of a season.
Play offs are tough on the three other teams that lose out, however it is most gut-wrenching in the instances where the team who finish 3rd (or 4th in League 2s case, 2nd in the Conference) if they lose out, often aggrieved that a team who finished below them be offered the chance of promotion ahead of them. As such, the idea that 3rd place do battle with 3rd bottom seems attractive. It still has the cup atmosphere, and if the team lower want to be successful in the higher divisions, they need to be able to be victorious in games such as those, whilst by the same token; teams hoping to avoid relegation should be able to see off the lower opposition.
Granted, currently as the play offs work, it is a fantastic spectacle for fans. The two-legged semi final followed by the dramatic finals at Wembley are a brilliant tradition, and it is one which should certainly be incorporated in some way. It is a tough decision to make in reality. My major interest is witnessing the conference gain an extra promotion place, which I feel is well and truly deserved following the remarkable 10 year progress which has taken place in the league, with plenty of successful clubs now growing within the structure. The question that remains is how that should be tackled. Be it merely by introducing one extra place for automatic promotion and increasing one more relegation spot from the division above, or indeed by reshaping the way that play offs work entirely. I am not completely opposed to the idea of a match between one team in each division; however if this idea is to be advanced further, it should certainly be ensured that we keep the decisive match at Wembley.