Controversial "Relegation Playoff" Approved For Premier Division And Second Division After Eleven-Hour Compromise Talks
STRATON — The Annual Congress of the Tumbran Football League came to a close with the twenty Premier Division clubs having obtained what they wanted — a relegation playoff between the third-placed team in the Second Division and the eighteenth-placed team in the Premier Division. The move, which was announced by TFF Chair Heather Cartwright after the season ended, generated plenty of controversy; within second division clubs, it was particularly controversial, as they saw it as the Premier Division attempting to keep clubs within the division.
The move was widely accepted to be handily defeated at the meeting, however after eleven hours of talks and horse trading, the measure passed with the requisite majority; with 69 clubs voting for and 59 voting against. Subsequent resolutions passed at the meeting gave away the reason for the vote passing, however; the lifting on limits of foreign players in the second tier of football, the abolition of the long-hated wage cap, and the ability for the Second Division as a whole to negotiate rights for television games, increasing the profile of the division.
A resolution to allow second tier clubs to participate in the IFCF Liga B Champions' Trophy (LBCT), however, was not passed; the 20 Second Division clubs were unable to come to a common resolution on whether to participate in the LBCT, adding to an already cramped footballing schedule faced by Tumbran football teams. The motion was therefore shelved for next year's annual general meeting; in hopes that a consensus could be reached by then.
The move to introduce a relegation playoff comes in the wake of a widening gap between the Premier and Second Divisions; allowing the best promoted team a shot to stay in the league for at least one season, Cartwright said, would "allow teams a chance to stabilise themselves and give themselves a fighting chance" in the Premier Division. Critics of the move called the move "self-serving" and "exclusionary", while bemoaning the lack of opportunities to rise up in the football pyramid.
The move will come into force next season, meaning that one of the three clubs promoted to the Premier Division — Port Marray, AFC Cayalon or Bencoolen City FC — will most likely enter a playoff.
The move was widely accepted to be handily defeated at the meeting, however after eleven hours of talks and horse trading, the measure passed with the requisite majority; with 69 clubs voting for and 59 voting against. Subsequent resolutions passed at the meeting gave away the reason for the vote passing, however; the lifting on limits of foreign players in the second tier of football, the abolition of the long-hated wage cap, and the ability for the Second Division as a whole to negotiate rights for television games, increasing the profile of the division.
A resolution to allow second tier clubs to participate in the IFCF Liga B Champions' Trophy (LBCT), however, was not passed; the 20 Second Division clubs were unable to come to a common resolution on whether to participate in the LBCT, adding to an already cramped footballing schedule faced by Tumbran football teams. The motion was therefore shelved for next year's annual general meeting; in hopes that a consensus could be reached by then.
The move to introduce a relegation playoff comes in the wake of a widening gap between the Premier and Second Divisions; allowing the best promoted team a shot to stay in the league for at least one season, Cartwright said, would "allow teams a chance to stabilise themselves and give themselves a fighting chance" in the Premier Division. Critics of the move called the move "self-serving" and "exclusionary", while bemoaning the lack of opportunities to rise up in the football pyramid.
The move will come into force next season, meaning that one of the three clubs promoted to the Premier Division — Port Marray, AFC Cayalon or Bencoolen City FC — will most likely enter a playoff.
