Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.

Could a Scottish style championship split work in the EFL?

jimmymelrose
jimmymelrose Posts: 10,248
in Other Football and Sports

I’d never really understood how this works until reading this article

It has led me to wonder if it could work in the EFL. Next season the play-offs are going down to 8th place, an idea I don’t like. I would find it more acceptable to go down to 12th place and then add to the points tally in a split league.

This would mean:

  1. An initial 23 games (24 teams
  2. A split 11 games (12 teams)
  3. Expanded play offs

The only question is what the bottom half teams would do at Stage 3. Maybe relegation play-offs? Any innovative ideas? I’m not totally serious, just curious as to whether we could come up with a similar system.

This system has been in place in Scotland for over 20 years now so it must be considered a success.

Comments

  • Friend Or Defoe
    Friend Or Defoe Posts: 18,309
    If you do the opposite of what the Scots do, you're usually on to a winner.
  • North Lower Neil
    North Lower Neil Posts: 23,660
    Scotland have that system due to the 12 team leagues not being a natural fit to reach the 40ish game mark that is a decent amount of games to spread over a league season.

    Why complicate a 24 team league that doesn’t have that issue?
  • Rothko
    Rothko Posts: 19,216
    no, because we don't have a league that is 1) small, 2) so reliant on one fixture driving it's TV deal
  • bobmunro
    bobmunro Posts: 21,702
    As others have said, not in a 24 team league with 46 games a season.
    How many times have a team in the bottom half put a great run together and made the play-offs. Quite a few I would guess and splitting the league in half would eliminate that possibility.
  • jimmymelrose
    jimmymelrose Posts: 10,248
    North Lower Neil said:
    Scotland have that system due to the 12 team leagues not being a natural fit to reach the 40ish game mark that is a decent amount of games to spread over a league season.

    Why complicate a 24 team league that doesn’t have that issue?
    Well, they used to play each other four times hence having a 44 game season. It could be argued that change to that system wasn’t necessary and that there wasn’t an issue either.
  • Rothko
    Rothko Posts: 19,216
    jimmymelrose said:
    North Lower Neil said:
    Scotland have that system due to the 12 team leagues not being a natural fit to reach the 40ish game mark that is a decent amount of games to spread over a league season.

    Why complicate a 24 team league that doesn’t have that issue?
    Well, they used to play each other four times hence having a 44 game season. It could be argued that change to that system wasn’t necessary and that there wasn’t an issue either.
    It’s a TV thing for the Scots, you need more Old Firm derbies to make the maths add up 
  • Chippycafc
    Chippycafc Posts: 14,512
    No...imagine getting beat 4 times by Millwall in a season.
  • sam3110
    sam3110 Posts: 23,233
    Nope, they do it because their pissy little league is completely irrelevant and useless.

    Why do they bother with 4 leagues? Most smaller countries get by with 2, they should just make it 2 24 team leagues and get on with it, but the whole thing relies clubs getting to play Rangers and Celtic 4 times a season to sell tickets
  • se9addick
    se9addick Posts: 32,838
    Chippycafc said:
    No...imagine getting beat 4 times by Millwall in a season.
    You assume we’d be in the same half after the split, I admire the optimism!
  • se9addick
    se9addick Posts: 32,838
    In all seriousness no, this would be a rubbish idea in England. It only makes (some sort of) sense in leagues with fewer numbers of teams. I think the practice started in Belgium before being adopted in Scotland and we all know how much those folks know about football. 

  • Sponsored links:



  • killerandflash
    killerandflash Posts: 71,933
    bobmunro said:
    As others have said, not in a 24 team league with 46 games a season.
    How many times have a team in the bottom half put a great run together and made the play-offs. Quite a few I would guess and splitting the league in half would eliminate that possibility.
    Norwich, in great form now, would be stuck in the wrong half.

    Even Southampton might have been in the bottom half when the league split - it would have been bizarre for them to dominate the second half of the season, with no hope of promotion.
  • EveshamAddick
    EveshamAddick Posts: 7,131
    No thanks.
  • iaitch
    iaitch Posts: 10,633
    The old adage 'if it's not broke comes' to mind.
  • CharltonKerry
    CharltonKerry Posts: 3,026
    No. Out of interest would we have even gone up last year if this was in place?
  • guinnessaddick
    guinnessaddick Posts: 30,245
    CharltonKerry said:
    No. Out of interest would we have even gone up last year if this was in place?
    Yes, we were 11th after 23 games, I did wonder the same & checked.
  • The Red Robin
    The Red Robin Posts: 27,713
    What would be the point? 
  • jimmymelrose
    jimmymelrose Posts: 10,248
    The Red Robin said:
    What would be the point? 
    There no point in extending the play offs to eight teams except to make more money. 
  • Friend Or Defoe
    Friend Or Defoe Posts: 18,309
    iaitch said:
    The old adage 'if it's not broke comes' to mind.
    In this case it's even worse. One of the most commercially successful leagues in the world taking an idea from one which is struggling.
  • jimmymelrose
    jimmymelrose Posts: 10,248
    If you think the Scottish system is a bit nuts, the Austrian one takes it to another level.  Points in the first half of the season are only worth half of thise won in the second half of the season!

    https://the94thminute.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/aeiou-my-initial-delve-into-the-austrian-bundesliga/

    The Bundesliga plays its games from autumn to spring, like the majority of the other European leagues, and as with many other countries who have a twelve-team league (such as Denmark, Scotland and Wales), the Bundesliga also adopts a league split after 22 league games once all the clubs have played each other twice (both home and away). The top six teams after twenty-two games are allocated within the Championship Round to determine who will become the league champions and determine the European qualifiers, whilst the bottom six teams compete in the Relegation Round to determine which team automatically gets relegated to the 2. Liga.

    What differentiates the Austrian league split from the other European leagues who also employ the mid-season divisional split is that the total points from the twenty-two games do not get carried across to the second phase of the season. Instead, the points earned from the first phase are halved (or rounded down should the points tally be an odd number), e.g. If after phase 1, Team A has 40 points and Team B has 31 points, then for the start of phase 2, Team A would start with 20 points and Team B with 15 points. Points from the remaining ten games are then added on as per normal, although should teams finish on equal points, then the team which has had their points rounded down after the first phase, will finish the higher because of it. This is to theoretically allow a more competitive competition for the second phase of the season.

    Teams in the two groups play each other team in their group home and away for an additional ten league fixtures to finish the season campaign having played 32 league games. The top team of the Championship Round at the end of the season is naturally crowned as the Austrian league champions and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, whilst the runners-up also qualify for the Champions League albeit at an earlier stage in the qualifying round playoffs. The 3rd placed team qualifies for the Europa League alongside the Austrian Cup winners, although should the cup be won by a team already qualified for Europe, then the 4th placed team also qualifies for the Europa League also.

    The two teams who finish in the top two positions in the Relegation Round (finishing 7th and 8th) will face each other in a one-legged playoff to determine who will face the 4th or 5th placed team for the final Europa League qualification spot. This European playoff is played over two legs at the end of the season, with the aggregate winner taking the final European position. Naturally whichever team finishes bottom of the Relegation Round (finishing 12th overall) is automatically relegated to the 2. Liga and replaced with the second-tier champion.

Categories

“Marketplace”