The fallout from yesterday’s revelation about the extended Championship play-offs continues, with one club standing firm against those plans.
Tranmere Rovers voted against the proposals to add two more teams to the end of season competition, which will come into play at the start of next season.
In the revelation revealed by The Athletic, the Birkenhead-based outfit were the solitary of the EFL’s 72 members to vote against these changes. One unnamed club abstained, while three were surprisingly absent.
Only 13-second-tier clubs were required to be in favour of the move, and 37 teams across the three divisions, for it to go through. Every Championship club agreed to it, while 67 were in agreement across the three divisions.
Tranmere’s Play-Off History
The Super White Army have had several run-ins with the play-offs in the last decade, most recently losing to Morecambe in the 2020/21 League Two edition. That followed their relegation from the third tier using the controversial PPG system, after the season was curtailed early following the outbreak of Covid-19. One can only wonder if owner Mark Palios still holds a grudge over the EFL for using that system.
In the three years prior, Tranmere made the play-offs in every campaign. After losing the 2017 National League Final, finishing the season with 95 points, Rovers won successive promotions via that method to reach League One. The latter of those came after finishing in sixth place in the fourth tier, six points adrift of third place and just three points better off than the side in ninth.
The significance of that position is that if the play-offs were to be extended across all three EFL divisions, then the team finishing in ninth would take part in one of the two eliminator ties. Following the renaming of all the Football League divisions in 1992, Rovers lost three successive semi-finals, after taking part in two of the earliest editions. On current form, they have little to worry about troubling the promotion places, with the managerless outfit currently battling against relegation from League Two.
Critics vs Statistics
There has been lots of number crunching in the past 30 hours on how many clubs have finished in the final play-off place and have gone on to win promotion. In the National League’s current six-team format, which was introduced ahead of the 2017/18 campaign, no side have enjoyed that success as of yet. The fifth tier of English football did see fifth-place Oldham Athletic win promotion last season, defeating York City in the semi-finals.
The Minstermen finished 23 points ahead of Oldham in the regular season standings, but were blown away by the Latics as they reached Wembley. York look well set to beat their 96-point tally this season, and yet still may have to go through the play-offs once more. Stuart Maynard’s side are embroiled in an epic title battle, but the reality remains that only one of those clubs will likely be guaranteed promotion.