Could MLS-style play-offs work in Europe's top leagues?

Picture the scene: after a compelling regular season and a keenly contested play-off series, one game to decide the destination of English soccer’s biggest prize the Premier League Cup. It’s a sporting spectacle to rival anything else the game can offer, up there with the Champions League and World Cup finals. Ninety minutes (maybe 30 more) to find a champion for an entire domestic campaign.

No, it’s not another grand plan imagineered by the mind of one-man think tank Richard Scudamore, perhaps alongside his doomed 39th game proposal, but a vision of how English soccer might look if viewed through Star-Spangled spectacles. Such a notion might be the stuff of hypothetical fantasy, yet with the Major League Soccer play-offs under way it at least has a degree of pertinence right now.

But could European soccer ever adopt a play-off system of its own? Many countries have play-offs to decide promotion and relegation between divisions, but not so many have their biggest honours handed out in such a way. Many remain fundamentally cynical of play-offs, so could they ever be embraced in Europe like they are in North American sporting circles?

Such a prospect might not be as fanciful as it was not so long ago. Of course, the English Championship already has play-offs every season to hand out a play-off place, as do the two divisions below it. The Championship play-off final, played at Wembley for a spot in the Premier League, is dubbed the richest game in world soccer, with the winners carting off an estimated £120m. Four European Championship places are allocated through play-offs, too – but there is even greater play-off precedent elsewhere in Europe.

Belgium’s Jupiler League adopted an end-of-season play-off structure six years ago, but anyone who believes MLS’s play-off system to be somewhat convoluted should check out this much-maligned system. The top six regular season sides gain entry to the division’s championship play-off, with each team starting on half the points collected over the course of the campaign. From each team plays each other twice before the title is awarded to the eventual table-toppers. As of next season a similar model will be implemented by the Danish Superliga.

Those hoping to make a case for the European adoption of a play-off structure might wish to steer clear of the example set by Sweden, too. The Allsvenskan division adopted a straight championship play-off for eight years between 1982 and 1990, with the switch widely blamed for the division’s demise over that time. Attendances across the league fell dramatically, particularly during the regular season, taking until the mid-1990s to recover. Before such a system is executed by another European top-flight, Sweden’s case study will be picked over.

“In the US it’s different because we are brought up that way,” explains New York Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles, who spent five years playing in Germany before moving Stateside. “Play-offs are just part of our sporting upbringing. I prefer them, because that’s what I grew up with, but I can understand from both sides of the coin. We understand that with play-offs there’s an added element of excitement to the season. I think from a TV standpoint that’s where sports really elevate themselves and as a fan that’s what you look forward to.”

As things stand though, a 21st century implementation of a MLS-like play-off structure in Europe is still some way off – with the English and Scottish Championships, and various other second tiers across the continent, boasting the closest such thing. There is currently not a top-flight division that hands out its championship title through play-offs, making MLS something of a global anomaly.

That is perhaps somewhat surprising given the success Uefa has had in its repackaging and reformatting of the Champions League over the past two decades or so. Europe’s premier club competition is, in essence, a play-off - and that model has worked rather well for the sport’s most prestigious prize. Could the Premier League, for instance, one day pit itself directly against Uefa by heralding its own knockout set-up to conclude the season?

Again, it appears unlikely, given that Premier League teams can have it both ways by harvesting Champions League revenue, whilst also reaping English soccer’s never before greater rewards. Clubs are currently comfy and play-offs can make things rather uncomfy, with even the biggest clubs susceptible to an upset in knockout format (as the LA Galaxy discovered in their 3-2 defeat by Seattle last week).

With the right sales pitch, however, Europe’s elite might be persuading differently. Greed and hubris could prove a factor in the elite league adoption of any play-off system, with the rich always seeking to get richer. Higher stakes games played more frequently might allow them to do that, whilst affording those languishing in lower echelons a better chance of crashing the party. In time, play-offs might actually become a universally appealing concept.

Yet European audiences and fans might still need some convincing on the merits of play-offs. As so many see it, a post-season of such weighted significance undermines the campaign that comes before it. In the Premier League’s hyperbolic world, tickets are sold and viewers drawn on the premise that every game means something. Play-offs, in which titles are won solely on final stretch form, would make it harder to do so.

As Robles points out, play-offs aren’t ingrained in European sporting culture like they are in North America. English leagues – and other continental divisions – are accompanied by cup competitions, giving fans and clubs the best of both spheres.

And yet the prospect of an end-of-season play-off series remains an enticing premise. “Foreigners, when they come over, when they start to understand it, enjoy the set-up in MLS,” the Red Bulls keeper elaborates. “I think if they tried it in Europe they’d be surprised how much they’d enjoy it.” Maybe one day the Premier League Cup will be more than just a Star-Spangled vision of English soccer.