Saturday, 13 September 2025

More teams to take part in Championship play offs

The English Football League (EFL) is considering a plan to add an eliminator round to the Championship play-offs, a move that would extend the number of teams in the play-offs to six.

The proposal, which has received wide initial support from Championship clubs, is for a similar format to the one used by the National League, with the team that finishes fifth playing the eighth-place team and sixth meeting seventh in singles ties at the better-placed team’s home ground.

But unlike the National League’s play-offs, which are all one-off matches, the winners of these eliminators would then proceed to two-legged ties against the teams that finished third and fourth, with the winners meeting at Wembley for a place in the Premier League.

Preston North End chief executive Peter Ridsdale presented the idea to fellow Championship club executives at a meeting last week and it was very well received as it would reduce the number of dead-rubber matches at the end of the season, add two more high-profile games to the calendar and give more clubs a shot at promotion.

Desmond from Deal comments: 'If this story was concerned with a change in relegation arrangements, it might be relevant to Charlton.  As it stands, it gives extra motivation to Millwall.'

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