Liverpool's Steven Gerrard scores from the penalty spot against Athletico Madrid during their Champions League, Group D, soccer match at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. AP Photo/Paul Thomas
For ten months it’s a marathon. To be the best over a period of some 46 matches. When the music stops, four are left fighting for an opportunity that may never come again. An opportunity that’s worth millions.
There is nothing as dramatic as the playoffs in English soccer.
You won’t see anything like it in the world of sport. To be so close to the promised land of the next division, only to be denied at the final step is devastating.
Conversely, there is nothing like the emotional high of winning the playoff and graduating to the next level.
It’s a sign of the times to see the composition of the top flight.
In the 1950s, Wolves were dominant, Derby Country were the team to beat in the early 1970s, while Nottingham Forest were on top at the end of the decade.
When I started following English football, in the mid 80s, you had teams like Sheffield Wednesday, Luton Town, Southampton, Coventry in the top flight.
All these teams are now scattered throughout the various divisions.
Three former staples of the top flight – Norwich City, Southhampton and Charlton – are the three teams being relegated to next year’s League One.
In all other sports, you can have a bad era, but at least you are still in the big time. Here a bad patch could literally spell the end of your team.
All the players will be sold off and you will have to start from rock bottom. That is the ugly side of the coin. On the day a team gets relegated, take a look around the stadium. You see tears of hopelessness, despair and sadness.
The further away from the Premiership means the further away from the glitz and glamour of the bright lights and the big names. The stadiums get smaller and the column inches shrink.
The much nicer side of the coin is seeing teams on the rise.
Wolves and Birmingham City have won their way through to next year’s Premier League. Preston North End, Sheffield United, Burnley and Reading are fighting for that final spot.
Sheffield United have spent the last twenty years shuffling between the divisions. It’s biggest period in the top league was between 1990 and 1994.
Reading hasn’t had much luck with the playoffs, and after finally winning, went down after two years in the Premier League.
They are trying to make it straight back.
Burnley is looking to return to the top flight for the first time since 1976, and Preston North End haven’t been back since 1961.
As the first English football champions, they would be the real Cinderella story if they were the ones to go through.
Lower down, you have Milton Keynes Don trying to win through to the Championship, along with Scunthorpe United, Millwall and the once mighty Leeds United.
The Champions League final and FA Cup final is all very well and good. But if you want real drama, watch the playoff finals.
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