Lockdown, deeper and down: Tranmere’s Relegation and the EFL’s integrity
The 1986/87 season saw the play-offs introduced to the Football League for the first time. The format would involve three teams who finished below the automatic promotion places with one team who finished above the automatic relegation places in the next league up. That season saw Charlton retain their place in the First Division, Sunderland slip to the Third Division and Bolton slip into the Fourth Division.
As it was, this format was designed to shrink the size of the First Division from 22 to 20 clubs and expand the Second Division from 22 to 24 clubs in keeping with the Third and Fourth Divisions. Having achieved this initial reconstruction for the start of the 1988/89 season onward, the play-offs have been contested only by the teams that finished below the promotion places ever since.
I’ve often wondered why, given that the Scottish Professional Football League have used a play-off system involving teams from two different leagues since the 2013/14 season (at least a system involving all four divisions). Given the decision of EFL Leagues One and Two to curtail the 2019/20 season following the Covid-19 lockdown, thus relegating Tranmere Rovers back to League Two, I find myself wondering why even more.
I’ve nothing but admiration for Mark & Nicola Palios in their efforts to protect Rovers but they were always going to be up against it, because the Points Per Game (PPG) system used to relegate Rovers without a chance to save themselves heavily favoured those who would either stay up or go up. Today’s decision was, if nothing else, a classic case of safety in numbers.
Yet under the same play-off system as was used in 1986/87, Rovers would have at least have had a chance of redemption. And it’s not like the EFL don’t have room for manoeuvre here. If Northampton (the team occupying 7th in League Two) felt aggrieved at losing their play-off place to Rovers, then the EFL could have had a reverse play-off involving Rovers and Wimbledon (the team in 20th place) at a neutral venue. One game, winner takes all, sell the TV rights to the highest bidder. Surely the ultimate wet dream for the likes of the EFL.
And for those who say that would be unprecedented, I would agree with you wholeheartedly, given that this would describe the lockdown that led to today’s decision beautifully. The crazy thing is that had the British government enforced this lockdown when it should have done, Rovers would not have had the opportunity to chalk up their three away wins on the bounce, which would have made the whole PPG that bit more academic.
I’ve also been resigned to Rovers going back down throughout a season in which they have struggled to adapt after back to back promotions. Yet when all was lost they were heading for a repeat of last season’s 100 percent record in March, which would have propelled Rovers to safety, before the lockdown kicked in. That’s what makes this game so crazy, so unpredictable and so special.
And Rovers have been crazy, unpredictable and special these past couple of seasons. Something a bit more than a bunch of empty suits sitting in on a Zoom call, know what I mean? It’s actually laughable that Coventry (probably the best side to come to Prenton Park in the League this season) celebrated their title and promotion with a squad photo when their most valuable player was whoever voted to remove their obligation to play the last dozen games at the business end of the season in order to win their precious title.
As Ryan Ferguson expressed far more eloquently than I ever could, this is all down to the EFL’s cowardice. Their relinquishing of responsibility ought to make them easy targets for an appeal, but when you’re a club that’s treading water financially that is not an easy an option as it should be. It’s bad enough losing when it’s 11 against 11. But as today demonstrated, that level playing field has long gone.
