This wrote:Stramala wrote:This wrote:Meanwhile in Belgium, things get overcomplicated again. Beerschot failed to get a professional license for next season. (because of being 17M in debt and not following instructions they had to do to obtain the license for current season). Normally this would get them relegated to third division (which is the highest non-professional league). But they are allowed to finish the currenct competition. They're playing play-downs against Cercle Brugge to decide who gets relegated to second division straight and who has to play play-offs against teams from second division (are you still following?) and basically, as they protested the decisions, they can continue playing both play offs. Now if they end up last in the play-downs, that's just their problem. However if they win the play-offs and play-downs, and the license fail gets confirmed, the second of that play-offs will go to first division (which is probably Westerlo, Mouscron or STVV). Now Cercle could protest too, meaning that we might end up with 17 teams in first division. (as second division champion Oostende will automatically go to first division). Still following? Things could get even more complicated, as one of the teams already qualified for that play-off round is WS Woluwe, who also failed to get a professional license. If somehow Woluwe wins that, things would become very complicated. Now chances are high that Woluwe will not complete the season, and that this problem will not rise. However things in second division would get shaken up quite a little (as also Brussels, Boussu Dour and Heist failed to get a prof license). In the end, there's a small chance that Beerschot's city rivals Antwerp will get promoted. Which would be very painful as their current management was kicked out by the Beerschot management 2 years back. Still following? Well, there's a small chance that Cercle will play in the Europa League next year, as they're playing the cup final. Still following? The degradation play-offs consists of 5 games, with the 15th placed team playing 3 times at home, and 2 times away, starting with a 3 point advantage. Yes, this makes no sense, but this is Belgium. And as you people still obviously understand the system, i should not mention the other play-offs to decide the title and the European places, as they are similarly absurd. Now i don't like the idea of play-offs in the first place, but Belgium has really made a mess of it. And the license system is a good thing in theory, meaning that only financially healthy clubs can survive, but it can make a mess out of the competition too. I've put this in one alinea, because you'll not be able to follow it anyway.
So what you're telling me is, the 14th placed team in the regular season can still make Europa League even without a cup run?! I have no words for that kind of stupidity...
I haven't told you about 'play off 2' yet, but actually yes, that is possible. The following scenario is possible: the 4th (Club Brugge) and 5th(Lokeren) placed teams from regular competition qualify for champions league, the 6th (Standard), 14th (Lierse) and 16th (Cercle) teams from regular competition(out of 16) qualify for Europa League. In that case the 16th placed team would be the only one who diserved it at merit (if they win the cup final) so the entire top 3 of the regular competition could theoretically end up with nothing.
So i'll explain the play-off 2 format for you. Teams 7 (Mons), 9 (Kortrijk), 12 (Gent) and 14 (Lierse) play in Group A Teams 8 (Mechelen), 10 (Leuven), 11 (Charleroi) and 13 (Beveren) play in Group B. Both groups start with 0 points and play 6 matches. Both winners will play the play-off 2 final. The winner of Play off 2 will play against the 4th placed team from play-off 1
Now i'll explain you play-off 1. All top 6 teams (Anderlecht, Waregem, Genk, Cl. Brugge, Standard and Lokeren) start with half their points from the regular competition. All teams will play 10 games, and the top 3 gets European places, the 4th will play against the winner of play-off 2. This could be the 5th, might Genk win the cup and at the same time qualify for CL-rounds.
Then there's play-off 3 (which are called play-downs) and the play-off which decides about promotion from 2nd division which i've both talked about above.
And oh, in 2nd division and lower, there are also 'periodical champions' the promotion play-off consists of the winner of the Play-downs (Beerschot or Cercle), period 1 champion (Woluwe), Period 2 champion (Oostende), Period 3 champion (probably too Oostende). Now as Oostende is already champion overall, so they'll promote anyway. Their place will be taken by the 2nd and 3rd in competition (Mouscron and Westerlo). Now because Woluwe is making a mess out of things, they could well be replaced by the 4th overall (Sint Truiden). Thankfully Woluwe has decided not to play these play-offs, so the only legal issues should be Beerschot (as mentioned above). Now because 1 team in first division and 4 teams in second division don't get their professional license, probably nobody will get relegated to third division. But this is Belgium, the country where you can protest every legal decision until infinity...
If a team doesn't get a professional license, they will automatically play in division 3 (the highest amateur league). However if a team goes bankrupt, it has to get relegated at least 2 divisions, no matter which division they were originally in. (so a team can start again in third division, but will still carry over it's debt, hence why very often they do a fusion with a local smaller team.
Now every team has a Matricule (something which other countries don't aplly) which is the reason why old clubs as Antwerp (2nd division) and RFC Liege (division 4) still carry on, despite having huge financial problems. This also complicateds fusions, as lot of teams don't want to do fusions, because they would lose their titles as happened to the old Beerschot, 7 time champion when they merged with Germinal Ekeren, or Beveren, 2 time champion when they merged with Waasland. (the opposite can happen too, like Standard merging with Seraing, but keeping Standard's matricule)
Now this is Belgium, so there would automatically be some smartass. Before Racing Brussels became part of RWDM (currently FC Brussels), they just changed matricule with a local team, so now KFC Rhodienne can claim they are 6 times champion of Belgium, despite never having played higher than 4th division.
So every country that thinks about running play-offs, really, don't! (or at least, keep it simple)
In the words of John Cleland; "Whoever designed that should be taken to a dark room and beaten."
I understand the matriculation system fine (it almost sounds Italian even, treating footballing contracts as a tradeable commodity) but I don't think I'll ever get my head around the play-offs nonsense.
But it would really be a triumph for the Bundesliga, if Dortmund and Bayern end up in the final for the world's biggest football tournament. 
[/ALL THE SMILEYS IN THE WORLD]
Even worse, it was away from home