TheBogEnd / Play-off Places

**Posted by evthedog** 04/2/2019 7:26 pm

Three teams are to be relegated from the Premier Division. Their places will be taken by the three top teams of the North, Central and South East divisions.

Question: where will the teams that qualify from play-off games go? I've looked on the Bostick site and found no information whatsoever. No one at the ground last Saturday knew either. Unless the league table which has a line above the bottom three teams is wrong and six go down I am stumped.

Somebody help me, help me please. Is the answer from above?

**Posted by alanj** 04/2/2019 9:31 pm

Be patient my son, all will be revealed.

**Posted by Bogend Ant** 04/2/2019 9:58 pm

There are 7 leagues at step 4 but only 5 of the play off winners can get promoted... The 2 teams that win the play offs with the lowest points per game ratio will not be promoted

**Posted by endofthelane** 05/2/2019 9:01 am

What Ant said, but I think he means 5 out of 7 playoff winners will be promoted. See this from the Kent Non League Website: (Particularly the last line!)"The Clubs in the bottom three places in each of the four divisions at Step 3 at the end of the Regular Season will be relegated to a feeder pool and placed in the most geographically appropriate division at Step 4 for the following Playing Season.They will be replaced by the Club finishing in 1st position in each of the seven divisions at Step 4 together with a further five Clubs to be determined by a series of Play Off Matches.In each division at Step 4, The Play Off Matches shall be played so that the highest placed of the eligible Clubs plays against the lowest placed and the other two Clubs play each other (the “Step 4 Initial Play Off Matches”).The winners of each of the Step 4 Initial Play Off Matches will play each other and the winner of those matches shall result in seven teams eligible for promotion.The five Clubs to be promoted shall be the five Clubs out of the seven divisional Play Off winners with the best points per match ratio in the Regular Season.If there are only three eligible Clubs then the highest placed shall receive a bye to a second match where it will play the winner of the other Play Off Match and the winner of that match will be promoted. Clubs finishing below position 7 will not be considered for Play Off Matches.The promoted Clubs will be placed in a feeder pool and placed in the most geographically appropriate division at Step 3."In short, 2 Play-Off winners will not go up from step 4!

**Posted by DeePee** 05/2/2019 3:10 pm

Well that's cleared that up then Still no real idea how that works.

**Posted by Tim Marcus** 05/2/2019 3:32 pm

Ant is correct. The leagues at Step 4 will produce 7 league champions - all 7 will automatically be promoted. The Step 4 leagues will also produce 7 playoff winners and the 5 play off winners who had the highest points per game average during the regular season will also be promoted meaning that the 2 play off winners with the lowest points per game averages will miss out

**Posted by endofthelane** 05/2/2019 3:38 pm

So finishing 5th and winning the playoffs will probably not result in promotion. So its not just going to be a case of squeaking into the playoffs - we'll be having to cast an eye out over the other 6 divisions if we're still in the picture come April.

Might have to dust off my old scientific calculator...

**Posted by evthedog** 05/2/2019 6:53 pm

I wish that I hadn't asked 🙇

**Posted by alanj** 05/2/2019 11:45 pm

What a lot of old cobblers, whoever thought up this promotion farce needs his a***e kicking.
For the likes of your average fan, and I consider myself amongst them, you need to be a mathematician to work it out.

**Posted by besty** 06/2/2019 8:41 am

Is there also a chance the leagues might restructure again this year?

**Posted by TerrorEd25** 06/2/2019 9:30 am

For play-offs to be fairer, and actually have some clarity to what actually happened during the league season, i've always thought teams from a lower division in the play-off placings should compete against those clubs who finished above the automatic relegation spots in the division above, as i believe they do in Scotland, and did do here in the football league for two seasons when the play-offs were first introduced in the 80s (hence, Chelsea went down in '88 having finished just above the relegation zone, but lost out to Middlesbrough who came up).

**Posted by alanj** 06/2/2019 10:23 am

What was wrong with the old two up two down system. At least everyone knew what was required, either to avoid relegation or promotion.
Theire is an old adage "if it aint broke don`t fix it" but some people like to meddle!

**Posted by Tim Marcus** 06/2/2019 10:30 am

That would certainly work for me TerrorEd, especially whilst there’s an inbalance nationally between the number of divisions at Steps 3 & 4.
My understanding however is that the current system will be in place for next season too and then in the 20/21 season there will be yet another division created at step 4. Whilst that will obviously once again have the effect of further diluting the quality at Step 4, it will restore the balance of promotion and relegation, as you will then have 8 divisions at Step 4, feeding into 4 divisions at step 3

**Posted by geoff g** 06/2/2019 11:58 am

As I have previously said on different footballing subjects that there are too many old men at the FA who are rich people & dont really know too much about the beautiful game. I dont know how many of them came to the decision on the play offs, but i am willing to bet that if you where to ask one of them to explain it, that the individual wont be able to tell you without asking the others. I dont know how long it took them to restruct the divisions, it took me 20 minutes to deal with the Premier division & its not like theirs.(Well the majority is)

**Posted by endofthelane** 06/2/2019 1:03 pm

There is an insoluble problem. Whilst a nice 1-2-4-8 pyramid seems ideal, there is considerable opposition from clubs from the North. Because of the concentration of the population (and clubs) in the South and South East the "line" between the North half of the pyramid and the South half is often down around the Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire area. Bishops Stortford were once placed in the Conference North! This means that Northern teams will often face much higher travelling costs, not to mention players having to leave work much earlier etc. So Northern teams want greater regionalisation at the higher level, which is at odds with a nice neat pyramid.. So much so, that I think that some teams have turned down promotions in the past.

Its something that we will not have to face, but it is an issue for Northern teams. And there is no easy answer that will suit everybody.

**Posted by TerrorEd25** 06/2/2019 1:45 pm

The upshot seems to be that, even if we were to progress through the play-offs, we wouldn't necessarily be going up to the Bostik Premier, but could be placed in a more 'geographically appropriate' division. Not sure who works that out, but Met. police for example, got moved from the Bostik premier into the Southern Premier and now have very few fixtures within the confines of the M25, facing costly trips to the West Country & even Wales. At least in the Bostik Premier the majority of teams are still in and around London & the home counties making almost all of the trips manageable.

**Posted by besty** 06/2/2019 1:47 pm

It must be difficult when sides have to travel huge distances for not much dough. Don't Dulwich have to go to Weston Super Mare this season, for example? That's a lot of ground to cover and a big commitment to the staff and players.