Premier League Rejects Champions League Playoffs: Good or Bad for the Game?

Premier League chairmen have rejected the idea of introducing a playoff to decide who takes the fourth UEFA Champions League place. The motion was beaten after it failed to gather the 14 votes needed to pass.

The controversial idea of introducing play-offs for the final Champions League spot was proposed last month. Under its premise teams finishing between fourth to seventh place would then go into a playoff to decide the leagues last place in the Champions League.

At best the proposal received a mixed reception from Premier League managers with some very much for the idea while others were dead set against it.

The idea was examined by Premier League chairmen at their meeting on London on Thursday after Peter Scudamore brought forward a mandate for the proposal and they have voted against it, meaning the status quo will stay as is.

While managers from Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool provided vehement opposition to the proposition, they were the four clubs with the most to lose. They were also somewhat ironically the four clubs who would have gained most.

Given the finances that the four clubs enjoy over every other team it is highly unlikely that any of these clubs would have finished outside the top seven positions in the short to medium term future.

The initial move was sparked by the growing gap between the top four teams and the rest of the Premier League and was originally greeted with much anticipation by certain chairmen.

Up to 10 chairmen were of an open disposition while four were dead against the idea. Needing 14 votes for any motion to be carried, it would seem that the "no campaign" received at least three of the floating voters.

While the playoff was originally intended to bridge the gap of wealth between the top four and the rest, it is worth noting that a recent UEFA survey stated that the 20 teams in the Premier League have a combined debt of some £3.5billion. With the top four teams owning £2billion of that total.

Looking at it another way, UEFA pointed out that the EPL owns 56 percent of all the debt in European football—a quite remarkable statistic.

Only this week the idea of introducing a playoff was mooted by the Scottish Premier League after they began looking at ideas to increase interest in the league.

The EPL has no such problems, it is the most widely watched league in the world and its teams are on the verge of agreeing a new £1billion television deal.

Playoffs could have offered the EPL a way around the controversial 39th game, as these matches could have been played on foreign soil.The motion has been rejected this time, but should the top four teams' domination continue it is very likely that it could be proposed again in the future.

This article was also published on Premier League Report

To read the original article on the proposal click here