Quote: DaveO "You could equally ask why does any body care about rounds 1-27 when the title is decided by a handful of matches at the end of the season.
Whatever system you adopt they both rely on the clubs taking the "meaningless" games seriously otherwise there is no point the fans turning up.'"
Idont dispute that.
Quote: DaveO "Given premiership soccer uses a league structure to decide the champions why does anyone care about the majority of games in that competition? They clearly do.
Of course the irony is, is last seasons soccer premiership being decided by virtually the last kick of the season completely rubbishes the idea you have to have a play off system to deliver an exciting end to the season. '"
That’s just a straw man, nobody has argued a league structure cannot possibly deliver an exciting end of season, just that it wont always and it leaves the possibility of large parts of the season being completely pointless.
Quote: DaveO "For me the playoffs are exactly like every school kid getting a prize on sports day. It is a system that is manufactured to give the impression teams are successful because they get into a top 8 when in fact the ones at the bottom end really are just poor teams. It's like the sport is afraid to acknowledge sporting failure and all that does is just like with school kids getting a prize for coming last is ensure no one bothers to try harder next time.'"
It is nothing like that at all.
Quote: DaveO "If you have and expanded WCC with one place for the league champions and one for the premiers neither competition would be pointless.'"
The play-offs would be pointless and idea goes against your own principle. If the league competition is the be all and end all of deciding quality then there is no need for the play-offs. If we accept your principle then the 2nd place team deserves the 2nd spot. They have, according to you, proven themselves the 2nd best team in the league. The play-offs would be pointless in a sporting sense because you have completely removed the legitimacy of them. They would be, the RL equivelant of the intertoto cup.