Six Teams in Playoffs from next season 3rd-8th

[Abseits]

EFL clubs have voted in favour of expanding the Championship play-offs from four to six teams.

The new system is similar to the format used in the National League and will be introduced for the 2026-27 season.

It 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 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.

[SheepRanger]

That should keep my promotion thread relevant.....

[shaggy24]

Is it to give spurs a chance to go back up ?

[Abseits]

We finished 9th in 2021 under Warbs. We were actually level on 68pts with Cardiff in 8th but they had a goal difference +15 better than us. That's the only time we've had a sniff of 8th I think?

My vague memory of that year is we were thinking of playoffs around March, did our usual shitthebed bottle-job and fell away. Once we were mathematically out of contention we won 4ish of last half-a-dozen meaningless games and achieved an artificially high position.

I suppose it means next year we'll spend half the season "only 3pts off 8th" but keep ballsing it up every time we have a game to bridge the gap.

[ragr]

If only there were already a way of determining the teams most worthy of promotion. As there’s clearly not this seems to be the work of absolute genius’s who have no ulterior motives for such cleverness.

[Acton Stations]

Totally stupid idea. I'd be happier if it reverted back to the top 3 automatic league places: that way we could at least finish 4th. Want to get promoted? Win league games - simples.

[3London]

Lets hope they invite the team who has been the longest in the championship the season after as a wild card- or extend them to 15th...then we definitely have chance!


but it should be 2 up 2 down with 3rd bottom in the prem and 3rd in the championship playing off for the other place

[SheepRanger]

At least it means that teams 5-6th have an extra game to play which gives the teams 3-4th the advantage.

Quite often, I think, a team with that late spurt in 5-6th will go up because 3-4th teams are deflated from missing out of automatic promotion. It gives the advantage back to the teams who finished higher in the league.

It really will make it harder for the smaller teams to get promoted and gives a greater advantage to the bigger teams, with parachute money quite often, to go back up.

I bet they're hoping the likes of Millwall is just a blip this season....not the right team to be in the premiership!!!

[Sleeping Giants]

Utterly ridiculous idea. I am not a fan of the play offs at all (despite the glorious Zamora moment) let alone extending it to the top 8 (minus the top 2 of course)....top 3 should go up. Now if you finish in the top 3rd of the teams in the whole division you get a golden ticket. Wrong wrong, wrong!

[LoftusRoadLad]

Silly, money making idea. Imagine 3rd who have 20 more points then 8th and that's the play off final. 8th parks the bus and gets up on a penalty ? Totally out of order !

[Undecided]

There's a whole season to decide who's going up. Why tack more games on the end?

Just another example of kicking the can down the road. But that's how it is nowadays.........

[Abseits]

Silly, money making idea. Imagine 3rd who have 20 more points then 8th and that's the play off final. 8th parks the bus and gets up on a penalty ? Totally out of order !

Wouldn't surprise me if they introduced VAR for playoffs... a way of "getting a toe in the door" to bringing it in to the Championship as a whole.

[FurtiveFox]

Could they maybe make it 16 to give us half a chance?

[djp]

Could they maybe make it 16 to give us half a chance?

Just go with two legged playoffs for all 24 teams from the start of the season, would only be 8-10 games per season so hopefully reduce injuries to only 1 or 2, then Ben Williams can say how we get to see our favourite player

[djp]

Well for us it will only be 5 games max, out of 1st Round of two leg playoff, League Cup, FA Cup and EFL Trophy for Dev squad