With or without playoffs ?. The Swiss Football League raises the question of meaning.

On Friday morning the representatives of the Super League and Challenge League clubs will meet to vote what was already decided in May: the introduction of the play-offs.

Last spring, the Swiss Football League clubs voted by a large majority in favor of increasing the top flight to twelve teams and introducing the playoffs. Now the new mode must be tilted before the starting signal in 2023. However, the increase is not in question. The most important thing about the next General Assembly of the Swiss Football League:

Resistance to the new mode quickly formed. Fan groups in particular have mobilized their forces in recent weeks, choreographed and collected signatures. The petition has more than 57,000 names, including those of exponents of sport, culture and politics, from the national forward Breel Embolo and the writer Pedro Lenz to the mayor of Bern, Alec von Graffenried.

FC Zurich have applied to abolish the playoff mode. The playoffs are unfair and unfair. Other clubs have since joined the resistance: Super League Young Boys, FC St. Gallen, Winterthur and FC Luzern. The vote will be much closer than last May. The pressure of the fan rims is considerable. “At stake is nothing less than the credibility of our sport”, reads an open letter from the No Committee to club presidents.

The mode, which has been dubbed the playoffs, is not a playoff as known from other sports. After 22 rounds in the new twelve-team Super League, the top six enter the Champions Group and the others in the Qualification Group. There, the teams still face each other twice. In the season finale, the top two then play in a best-of-3 series for the title, while the eight teams behind fighting for the European Cup are placed in single-elimination mode.

In the difficult search for a viable mode after the hike for next season, playoff opponents in Scotland have struck gold. The Scottish model, voted in Switzerland two and a half years ago, includes 33 rounds and then a subdivision of the top six in the league round and the other six in the relegation round. Within these groups, each team plays against each other, so five more games. In the Championship Round the league and Champions Cup seats are played, in the Relegation Round against the relegation and the barrier.

For FC Zurich and Co. the playoffs have no place in football. The best team of the entire season should be in the lead at the end. The playoffs artificially produce tension and open the doors to chance, according to opponents. Audience revenue would decrease as there are fewer home games. Furthermore, it is unclear whether such high-stakes games, such as those in the playoffs, would have been approved by the authorities.

The clearest supporters of the playoffs come from Romania. From Lausanne or Sitten it is said that this modality must have a chance, after all, everything was decided democratically in May and has not yet been applied. Other fans point out the lack of enthusiasm in the championship run for years and are annoyed that two more rounds join the already packed Scottish football schedule.

The 20 representatives of the Swiss Football League clubs meet on Friday morning in Bern for an ordinary general meeting. Among other things, FC Zurich’s proposal to change the modality will be voted on. Three variants are possible: the Scottish model replaces the playoff mode, the playoffs are retained or the playoffs remain but without the final league series. For the first two options a simple majority is enough, for the last two thirds they must agree.

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