Playoffs in the Premier League?

Filed in archive Premiership 2006/7 on November 1, 2007

We all know Goldenballs is trying to popularize soccer in America, but what if it all happens in reverse? What if we Europeans take a curious glance at Becks in MLS and fall in love with the format? What if we decided to use an MLS style playoff system?

Bob at The offside has gone above and beyond and imagined such a nightmare scenario, laying out what the 2006/7 playoffs would have looked like if Europe's major leagues had gone into "post-season" with the top 8 teams competing in a knockout tournament. Here's what it would have looked like:

England

Manchester United (1) v Reading (8)

Chelsea (2) v Bolton Wanderers (7)

Liverpool (3) v Everton (6)

Arsenal (4) v Tottenham Hotspur (5)

France

Lyon (1) v Auxerre (8)

Marseille (2) v Sochaux (7)

Toulouse (3) v Bordeaux(6)

Rennes (4) v Lens (5)

Germany

Stuttgart (1) v VfL Bochum (8)

Schalke (2) v Hamburg (7)

Werder Bremen (3) v Nurnberg (6)

Bayern Munich (4) v Bayer Lverkusen (5)

Italy

Inter Milan (1) v Atalanta (8)

Roma (2) v Empoli (7)

Lazio (3) v Palermo (6)

AC Milan (4) v Fiorentina (5)

Spain

Real Madrid (1) v Recreativo Huelva (8)

Barcelona (2) v Atletico Madrid (7)

Sevilla (3) v Real Zaragoza (6)

Valencia (4) v Villarreal (5)

Shudder. Now I'm all for being open minded, and I genuinely enjoy watching MLS mostly because of its many quirks, and I don't want to over-react. But this would be the end of football as we know it. The Liverpool vs Everton and Arsenal vs Spurs games would obviously be exciting, but it's always exciting when those guys play. And would you be willing to devalue the roller-coaster ups and downs of the season for one weekend of excitement. And would anyone be all that interested in seeing Chelsea play Bolton? Even worse, what if Man Utd played like they had all of last season (ie magnificently, and I say that without any affection) but then lost in the playoffs to a Reading team that got lucky.

The national champions should be decided by playing every other team home and away. Cup competitions are the place for knockouts and upsets and it's no coincidence that the country with a playoff system is also the country with the most undervalued cup competition in the entire world. Despite it's historical significance, the US Open Cup gets low crowds, is hardly ever on TV, doesn't even have every MLS team bother to enter and then the ones that do often field weakened teams. And you thought the Carling Cup had problems.