Play-offs for the Prem

Love them or loathe them - you just can't ignore them - The play-offs are here to stay and they're now an integral part of English football.

The Play-offs have seen various transitions since they first started in the late nineteen eighties when the third bottom side of the Top flight played the winner of the third and fourth placed teams in the second division. The riot at StamfordBridge which ensued when Middlesbrough waved adieu to Chelsea at their own ground was enough to have that particular tinder box of a fixture cancelled. But the concept still aroused heated passions at the end of a season and suddenly the format had legs.

The notion that at the end of the season a mini round-robin could be played with the prospect of a place at Wembley and a glorious day out for supporters was too commercially powerful to resist. In truth the matches themselves are often hum-dingers because caution is literally thrown to the wind because fortune really does favour the brave in these games.

Whatever the outcome of Leeds's and Hull's latest play off odyssey's no fan can honestly say that they have not been nerve wracking, exhilarating and frightening in equal measure.

This being the case it is surely inevitable that the behemouth money making machine that is the Premier league can no longer afford to miss out on such entertainment. What about the top three going into the champions league but a 4th,5th 6th and 7th place for that elusive other Champions league place? It would certainly open it up to the other tranche of chasing clubs and would give premier league fans a taste of the drama of the playoffs and what would be wrong with that?