Championship play-offs expansion

[JimJams]

Wonder how long it'll be before there's a playoff similar to the German model.

[dmayne7]

Works well in the National League because the FL is so well guarded and opportunities to get in are ridiculously limited but that's not the case in this league. Should be adopted across all 3 leagues, not just 1. And how is this going to help with the supposed gap between the top 2 leagues if 8th place do go up?

[foxinsocks]

So this year derby or even sheff utd could get to the epl.

This will weaken the chances of promoted clubs staying in the epl.

It is a joke

[StanSP]

Sometimes the difference in quality from Championship to Premier League teams is remarkable. And so noticeable. 

 

Worries me how a team in 8th may fare once they get promoted... 

[trugerkem]

If the team that wins the league gets relegated 9 times out of 10 what makes the FA think that the team that finishes 8th will do any better 

[Gazza M]

7 hours ago, davieG said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c1w55xrvrwqo

 

We want to know what you make of the breaking news that, from next season, the Championship play-offs will be expanded to include the teams finishing seventh and eighth?

It was announced on Thursday morning that EFL clubs voted in favour of expanding the play-offs from four to six teams.

The new system will mirror the format used in the National League and means teams finishing from third to eighth will compete for promotion to the Premier League.

Clubs finishing third and fourth will progress directly to the semi-final, while a one-legged quarter final will be played with the side finishing fifth at home to eighth and sixth hosting seventh.

Semi-finals will remain as two legs and the final will still take place at Wembley at the end of May.

It will likely mean more clubs have more to play for going into the final weeks of the season, with fewer 'dead rubber' encounters, but do you think the eighth-best team over the course of a season deserves a shot at the Premier League.

 

You can share your views here.

We promote. 

[Raj]

I'm old school.

Play off just about work.

 

This is fecking ridiculous.

 

[jim5000]

4 hours ago, LCFC_JAY said:

all hypothetical I know, but you could argue this gives the team that gets through all those play off games the advantage, as they'll have the momentum after winning, and gives the 3rd place team the disadvantage

Yep, this. While the teams in 3rd and 4th are twiddling their thumbs and thinking about planning their holidays, the teams in 7th and 8th are given an opportunity to build some form before playing the team that came third that haven’t had a competitive match for 3 weeks and are therefore rusty

[Sly]

The playoffs were introduced in the 86/87 season.

 

Just looking at the 2nd Tier promotions, typically the % chance of getting promoted vs where you finished does sort of dictate who will go up. 

 

87 - Charlton - We’re already in Tier 1. Beat Leeds who finished 4th in Final.

 

88 - Middlesborough 3rd - Relegated following season

 

89 - Palace 3rd

 

90 - Swindon 4th - However Sunderland who were 6th got promoted as Swindon were banned for being dodgy, they got Relegated the following season

 

91 - Notts County 4th - Relegated following season

 

92 - Blackburn 6th

 

93 - Swindon 5th - Relegated following season

 

94 - Leicester 4th - Relegated following season

 

95 - Bolton 3rd - Relegated following season

 

96 - Leicester 5th

 

97 - Palace 6th - Relegated following season

 

98 - Charlton 4th - Relegated following season

 

99 - Watford 5th - Relegated following season

 

00 - Ipswich 3rd

 

01 - Bolton 3rd

 

02 - Birmingham 5th

 

03 - Wolves 5th - Relegated following season

 

04 - Palace 6th - Relegated following season

 

05 - West Ham 6th

 

06 - Watford 3rd - Relegated following season

 

07 - Derby 3rd - Relegated following season

 

08 - Hull 3rd

 

09 - Burnley 5th - Relegated following season

 

10 - Blackpool 6th - Relegated following season

 

11 - Swansea 3rd

 

12 - West Ham 3rd

 

13 - Palace 5th

 

14 - QPR 4th - Relegated following season

 

15 - Norwich 3rd - Relegated following season

 

16 - Hull 4th - Relegated following season

 

17 - Huddlesfield 5th

 

18 - Fulham 3rd - Relegated following season

 

19 - Villa 5th

 

20 - Fulham 4th - Relegated following season

 

21 - Brentford 3rd

 

22 - Forest 4th

 

23 - Luton 3rd - Relegated following season

 

24 - Southampton 4th - Relegated following season

 

25 - Sunderland 4th

 

—————

 

Tier 1 - 1 Time - survived next season

3rd - 13 Times - 7 survived next season

4th - 10 Times - 2 survived next season 

5th - 8 Times - 5 survived next season

6th - 6 times - 2 survived next season 

 

In a nutshell, the lower you are the less chance you have of getting promoted. I’m going to say the data sort of indicates you then have less chance of staying up. 
 

Pointless adding two more matches. 

[Globalfox]

It is against the dynamics of going to every game. Good for RV and the revenue from that. No disrespect but the current top two clubs will struggle so anyone lower down is really going to find it hard. Why have a season slog if by a bit of fortune you can get promoted after finishing 15 points adrift of 3rd place. Why invest in a season ticket just watch the play offs. This is all for armchair fans. Why not just not play any games and put names in a hat. This is not football but money laundering. Supporters lose out, players, agents line their pockets. I predict no more than 20 years and top football in the UK will collapse.

[Claudio Fannieri]

Should just leave well alone, the current set up is just about right, this change further weakens the quality of the play offs and you run the risk of a team finishing a mile off and being closer to relegation than promotion having a decent run of form in a short form tournament and ending up promoted. 
 

All in all it just weakens the overall integrity of the competition and the quality of the premier league as you could end up with some right old muck getting promoted. 

[Corky]

Not hugely fond of the play-offs in its current guise and this makes it worse.

[CosbehFox]

Personally if you want extended playoffs, in order to maintain integrity, they should have a system like Italian Serie B adopted where you had to be within a certain number of points to qualify. If the 7th and 8th were too far away from 3rd and 4th, they were not included. 

 

Ultimately a sign that football clubs are ran by idiots chasing coin. Thinking of 'oh more chance to get in the playoffs' rather than the overall effect to the humdrum 46 game season. You've reduced the jeopardy on the regular league system. 

 

This demand within sport for more games, more competitions is so short sighted. Football in particular finds itself at a pivotal point in its relationship with fans. 

[jayfox26]

17 hours ago, JimJams said:

Are they extending it to the league one playoffs?

Still wouldn't be something for us to concern ourselves with. 

[Dan]

2 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

Personally if you want extended playoffs, in order to maintain integrity, they should have a system like Italian Serie B adopted where you had to be within a certain number of points to qualify. If the 7th and 8th were too far away from 3rd and 4th, they were not included. 

 

Ultimately a sign that football clubs are ran by idiots chasing coin. Thinking of 'oh more chance to get in the playoffs' rather than the overall effect to the humdrum 46 game season. You've reduced the jeopardy on the regular league system. 

 

This demand within sport for more games, more competitions is so short sighted. Football in particular finds itself at a pivotal point in its relationship with fans. 

 I knew you'd be a fan of this as well. I posted exactly this in another thread.

[Guest worth_the_wait]

On 06/03/2026 at 01:29, Sly said:

... 

Tier 1 - 1 Time - survived next season

3rd - 13 Times - 7 survived next season

4th - 10 Times - 2 survived next season 

5th - 8 Times - 5 survived next season

6th - 6 times - 2 survived next season 

In a nutshell, the lower you are the less chance you have of getting promoted.

...

 

An interesting stat - which I worked out for myself some time back.   And a good example of how something false is believed to be true because it's repeated so many times.

"The team in 6th usually gets promoted" is often quoted.  Complete rubbish - the opposite is the case.

 

Others "myths" repeated a lot:

 

"Manchester is UK's rainiest city"  (not particularly.  Cardiff and Glasgow are much wetter).

 

"Fishing is the UK's most popular sport"  (No it's not.  More people kick a football each year, than pick up a fishing rod).

 

"Flying is the safest form of travel"  (Only by one artificial statistic,   By any normal statistic like "deaths per journey", railways are much safer)

 

"Toast always lands butter side down"  (No it doesn't.   It's just that you always remember the times it does, as it makes a right mess.)

 

[Finn Claw II]

Against this - we’ll end up with something like the below in a few years

 

top 2 promoted

next 16 play-offs

relegation play-ff of 4

Bottom 2 relegated 

[Blueman1967]

I keep it the same, but it would make more games more to play for at the end.

[Twitcher]

Should be top 3 up. Play-offs nah.

[Foxy-Lady]

On 05/03/2026 at 14:22, Ric Flair said:

Not got a major problem with this to be honest, we'll not trouble 8th for many a year.

They're thinking of extending it to the Top 22.......there's still a chance...! 

[lgfualol]

We need them to implement a bottom 8 playoff 

[murphy]

Don't like it.  Takes football further away from rewarding teams for what they deserve on merit.   

[murphy]

3 hours ago, worth_the_wait said:

.... 

 

"Toast always lands butter side down"  (No it doesn't.   It's just that you always remember the times it does, as it makes a right mess.)

 

 Buttered toast frequently lands butter-side down (about 62% to 81% of the time) because of the physics of the fall, not just bad luck. When toast slides off a standard-height table,  it has just enough time to complete a half-rotation, meaning a top-facing slice flips to land face-down.

[JimJams]

Someone's been watching QI.