It's time to revamp the Bundesliga play-offs
If a competition is won by the same side 10 out of 11 times, you talk about changing it
A team narrowly escapes relegation and enters a two-legged game on a high. Their opponents? A much weaker side that has usually had their dreams of promotion broken on the final matchday.
Even before a ball is kicked or we talk about any financial disparity, the teams entering the Bundesliga play-off every year do so having experienced polar opposite emotions on the final matchday of the season. And it is invariably just another thing that favours the side in the top tier.
For example, Bundesliga outfit Stuttgart entered this season’s play-off on a high. They took five points from their last three games of the season (and 13 from their last eight) to finish just two points above relegated Schalke. In form and backed by the euphoria of a second chance at survival, they welcomed Hamburg for last week’s first leg.
Hamburg had been through some big emotions of their own a few days earlier. Their fans were celebrating a return to the top flight in Sandhausen four days before their trip to Stuttgart, the SV Sandhausen PA congratulating them on their promotion even though FC Heidenheim were still playing in Regensburg, where they scored two injury time goals to snatch the 2. Bundesliga title away from SV Darmstadt and promotion away from Hamburg.
And so the Rothosen went to Stuttgart off the back off a few days where they had tried to lift themselves off of the ground and, against an in-form top tier side on the up they were lucky to lose 3-0 and their hopes of promotion were more or less over with another game still to come.
Is that even a surprise? It shouldn’t be, not anymore. The ‘relegation’ play-off, as it’s called, isn’t a relegation play-off at all. With Stuttgart winning 3-1 in Hamburg (after going behind early on) this two-legged tie has now been won by the top tier side in 10 of the last 11 seasons. In 10 of the last 11 seasons, just two teams have seen a season of efforts rewarded with promotion to Germany’s top flight. And just one team has narrowly escaped automatic relegation but still paid the price for a bad season.
And a trend like that ought to lead to change, or at least pressure for change. And that doesn’t mean scrapping play-offs altogether, as they can be exciting. The play-offs in the English Football League, containing semi-finals and a final played out by the four best teams that missed out on automatic promotion are thrilling every single season without fail. They’re also even.
Things in Germany are a bit different. Those English leagues are made up of 24 teams, so promoting someone who finished sixth doesn’t feel outrageous. In the 18-team 2. Bundesliga, it would.
But there are plenty of ways to keep play-offs, which I’m sure are attractive for fans, for viewers, and thus the league and its broadcasters, and make them fairer. In turn making them more interesting and more lucrative.
We could …
Keep the same two teams (16th in the Bundesliga, 3rd in the 2. Bundesliga) but play a one-off game at the home of the second tier side
Or …
Relegate 16th in the Bundesliga and have 3rd and 4th from the 2. Bundesliga play each other across two legs
Or even …
Have 15th and 16th in the Bundesliga face each other (one or two legs) for survival and have 3rd and 4th face each other for promotion
I like the last two ideas the best. I don’t see why the third worst team in the Bundesliga deserved an annual reprieve and greater churn between the leagues would be a good thing for German football. More mobility between the leagues helps close the financial gap, it spreads the wealth more, which creates a more competitive system for everyone.
German football insists it still cares about fairness and, while it’s ahead of other European leagues in terms of protecting the interests (and opinions) of fans, more can be done to spread the money evenly through not just the top flight but beyond. A more even division of TV money would be a start.
Altering the play-off system to something that works better for the clubs not in the top flight would be another.