Fandom is all about the moments, the shot at glory, the voice at the back of your head that tells you: “what if?”.
By dangling the carrot of promotion to more of the division, EFL clubs have essentially handed fans an excuse to indulge in the dream a little longer.
In 2024/25, a Watford team that accrued the fewest points in the Championship from Boxing Day onwards were still just four points off eighth with three matches to play – and would have had a genuine shot at going up.
This time around, 17th-place Norwich – written off by some as relegation fodder relatively recently – are only six points behind what will soon become the dotted line.
This new format could provide glorious chaos, hope and heartbreak. What more could you ask for?
From the 26/27 season, the #SkyBetChampionship Play-Offs will be expanded to six teams.
Read more: https://t.co/E8Njme9iOL#EFL pic.twitter.com/eWqfM8TB08
— EFL (@EFL) March 5, 2026
The play-off system, first introduced in the Football League in 1986/87, has never been fair. It prioritises excitement over integrity and we all buy into it because of the upside.
There are those who will use last season’s Watford as an example with which to condemn the changes. Why should a team as average as last season’s Hornets stand any chance of glory?
The truth is they probably wouldn’t have done, even if they had scraped eighth spot.
No sixth-placed Championship team has won promotion since 2010, when Ian Holloway’s Blackpool beat Cardiff City at Wembley.
Indeed, 12 of the 15 play-off winners since have finished third or fourth. While the end-of-season ‘lottery’ is meant to be an equaliser, it still tends to be the best teams that win the jackpot.
On that basis, teams ending up seventh or eighth would win promotion once in a blue moon, particularly considering they will have to get through an eliminator round against a superior team just to reach the standard final-four stage.
In the National Leagues, where the same format has been used since 2017/18, less than 15% of play-off winners have come from the bottom two positions – and that is across three divisions played on a more even playing field than the Championship, where a small clutch of sides are far richer than the others and always have the best chance.
The material difference from this will likely be tiny – we’ll just have more fun on the way.
The Championship play-off trophy (Image: PA)
And if the odd mediocre side snuck their way into the Premier League, so what?
The game would surely benefit from more variety, opportunity and riches being spread more evenly.
It could eventually create a more competitive Championship than in more recent years, when the reality of “the most competitive league in the world” has largely been similar teams fighting at the top every year.
While expanding the play-offs much lower than eighth would begin to become farcical, the new-look system could actually be considered a boost for the integrity of the competition.
As it stands, the only real advantage gained from finishing third compared to sixth is home advantage in the second leg of the semi-final; helpful, but not decisive.
Now, finishing third or fourth allows those teams time to kick back and relax as the four sides below them scrap it out just to reach the next stage. The incentive to finish fourth rather than fifth is meaningful.
Graham Taylor led Watford to promotion in 1999 (Image: Reuters)
The argument exists that lowering the threshold for promotion will only encourage clubs to take more potentially catastrophic financial risks to make the grade.
After all, it was reported last week that the Championship clubs to have reported their accounts for 2024/25 so far are losing over £500k per week on average.
But truthfully, the game is stretching itself to breaking point anyway. The unsustainable financial chaos engulfing the game is a major worry, but not one that this can make all that much worse.
Instead, ask yourself as a supporter whether the line now sitting at eighth rather than sixth is likely to keep your interest piqued at the end of next season for that little bit longer.
If the answer is yes, embrace the chaos.