It is time to talk about the P word. In North American sports, the playoffs are a format where teams play a whole regular season for most of the year that becomes irrelevant when the top teams are more than half the teams.
It is a format that has been frowned upon by the vast majority of European leagues who, for the most part, have been more than happy to crown their champion the way they have for the past century or so.
That could be changing. It won't happen next year, or even the year after, but it's an increasing part of the conversation as the European game deals with a shifting economic landscape and the effects of polarization with the rich. We have already seen a radical change to the format of the Champions League from the year 2024, as well as the introduction of a post-season playoff format in 2009. The possibility of a knockout or round-robin based post-season format has been explored by both Germany and Italy.
This talk won't go away, so here's a Q+A to better understand why it's happening and how things will look in the future.
Why are they doing this? What happened if it wasn't broken, don't fix it?
A lot of people think that it is broken, from those involved in big clubs right down to smaller clubs.
There are two factors at play. The economics of the system are difficult to be sustainable. The resources on the sporting side are so split that certain clubs dominate year after year. The ability to compete and the ability to be sustainable are linked. It applies to the big clubs as well, or at least it is the justification given by some clubs for the Super League project.
How does that work?
If you want to be sustainable, you have to either cut costs or grow revenue. Many clubs have been propped up by owners investing in teams to try to grow their brand and commercial revenue as well as chase on-field success, which leads to more prize money. Since you can't control what happens on the pitch, you're all chasing the same pie, and you can only fund losses for so long. You risk becoming less competitive if you cut costs.
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Financial Fair Play has made football more stable, but it has also made it less competitive. You only need to look at league tables from 20 or 30 years ago, as well as the number of points earned by the champion, to see this.
Which is it? In May, you see a lot of meaningless games. We get a lot of empty encounters between teams that are already champions, teams that have secured a European spot, teams that are already demoted, and teams that are not going into Europe.
12 of the 18 teams in the premier league had nothing to play for on matchday 37. More than half of the teams in the Bundesliga and La Liga had the same problem. There is more to play for in those leagues with six or seven European places at stake. That is not the case for most European leagues.
The crew from the sports network broke down what went wrong for the team in their loss to the team from the other side of the country.
The attendances were still good, right?
I am not sure you can use match-going fans, or people who bought their tickets far in advance, as the only metric here. The average match-going fan in 2016 was in his forties, which doesn't bode well for the future. Since everybody talks in terms of global audience, how engaged is a younger fan going to be for a game with nothing at stake?
Going to games is a completely different experience than watching games at home, with rituals like hanging out with your friends, singing songs, eating or drinking, sitting outside in the sun, no matter how virtually you are connected to whatever communities you watch games with.
Unless you have a local family connection to a place or get to experience games in person, you are unlikely to become a fan of a club that barely competes for anything other than mid-table comfort.
You could go on a cup run.
Domestic cups have been largely devalue in most countries because they are sandwiched in the league schedule. You are on to something. In leagues with runaway winners, a sense of competition and jeopardy may be reintroduced after the regular season.
Is it possible that it will devalue the regular season like in American sports? The Utah Jazz had the best record in the NBA last year, but nobody remembers that Milwaukee won the NBA title.
A: Yes. You don't need to use the playoffs to determine the champion. The winner of the league will get all the awards. Whoever wins the post-season should be called something else.
There is still value in it. The other top teams in the league have been beaten by whoever wins. You will make more money because of the late season games.
It seems unfair that you get to win a trophy when you are not the best team in the country. Would fans accept that?
Do they already do? We accept it in the league. If Real Madrid win the trophy, they will do so having taken less points than their rivals. So what?
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In relative economic terms, the Championship in England is the biggest prize in football. We get teams finishing fifth or sixth, 10 points or more out of the promotion places, and getting promoted via the playoffs. Nobody seems to have a problem with that.
Is it possible to extend the season and not have too many games?
I would cut the number of top-flight teams in the big league to 18 or 16. You would have more meaningful games. You would cut down on player workload without extending the season. It is unlikely since it is about money and more inventory equals more revenue.
It would not have to be a big production. The top two teams will have a bye to the semifinals. You can play single-leg at the home of the highest placed team and wrap everything up in 10 days. Give byes to the third and fourth place teams if you make it top eight and do it in 12 days.
Not every format is right for every league, and not every league will want to do this, but you are giving teams something to play for. You are creating a lucrative property: another bunch of high-end games on successive nights at the end of a campaign.
We are talking two or three additional games for the player workload. The League Cup will be scrapped in England.
The latest news and reaction from Gabriele.
What if you are playing a European final? Will that mess with your preparation?
A system is not perfect. There will be strange situations. We just saw that the Reds played a decisive away fixture with the title on the line and made nine changes from the weekend. These are very rare and extreme.
What about tradition? Isn't that important?
There is a difference between tradition and natural conservatism. The FA Cup was more important than the league in England. Now it is not. Since World War II, the French League has been the sole format for the German league. The European Cup changed formats. The game changes over time.
I think the reason people are talking about this is that it isn't being driven solely by economic factors, but by sporting factors as well. We can talk about levelling the playing field via salary caps, or dividing revenues more equitably, but it is difficult to do and there are many obstacles. Some of the issues in those countries can be addressed with a playoff solution.
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