Five European leagues that do the split much differently than Scotland
Vive le Split.
It’s round 33 of the Scottish Premiership this weekend, which means it’s the last round of matches before the league splits in two. It’s one of those things the Scottish footballing public has grown used to debating. Every year there is an argument about why we do it. “You can have more points than 4th and finish 7th”, “It makes the fixtures too complicated” and “It gives teams nothing to play for” are amongst the usual arguments for those who dislike it. In this article, we look at five other leagues in Europe that also have to apply the split but do it differently, and see whether or not Scotland should follow suit.
Although it may have been fairly revolutionary when it was first introduced by the old SPL in the 2000–01 season, many other European leagues have introduced similar systems in recent years. The need for the split is when trying to have 36–40 league games in a league that has more than 10 but less than 18 teams. Playing three times only is also an issue as it can give some sides an advantage as they’ll play their immediate rivals twice at home but only once away. A split can allow leagues to divide their respective division in such a way that allows having rival teams usually play the same number of games home and away against each other, but also provides the benefit of having 34–40 league matches to avoid fixture congestion.
- Wales
The Welsh Premier League is a peculiar league in general, the most successful team of recent seasons actually play their games in England — The New Saints — and the best teams from Wales all still play in the English leagues. However, the climax to their league is also unusual. The 12 team league has every side play each other once at home and away before splitting into a Championship and Play-off Conference, both of six teams after 22 games played.
The sides then play every side in their conference once at home and once away again, before ending the regular season after 32 games played. The bottom two sides of the Playoff Conference are relegated to the Cymru Alliance League and the winners of the Championship are, rather unsurprisingly, declared Champions and qualify for the eponymous European competition. The Welsh Prem only plays 32 matches in order to ease the congestion as most teams in the league are only part-time, and the top two sides are also invited to play in the Scottish Challenge Cup.
However, there is an added caveat; in order to give the sides at the top of the bottom six i.e. the “playoff conference” something to play for; the sides that finish 3rd down to 7th feature in a Europa League play-off. In which 6th plays 7th in a Quarter Final, the winner of which then plays 3rd in a semi-final, whilst the sides finishing 4th and 5th play in the other semi-final. The winner of the semis then play in a one-legged tie played at the highest placed sides’ ground to determine who plays in the Europa League first Qualification round.
If one of the top two sides in the league win the Welsh Cup and qualify through that route, then the Quarter Final is not required and third place automatically qualifies, leaving sides 4th through 7th to play for the remaining European berth. A similar situation would arise if one of the five sides involved in the playoffs were to win the Welsh Cup.
2. Czechia/Czech Republic
The Fortuna Liga operated a simple 16 team, 30 match system; however, this season the Czech Football authorities have decided to add a split as “The superstructures are being introduced in a number of countries of our size.” On their official website, they cite Scotland as an example of where this model works. The Fortuna Liga will retain its previous format of every side playing each other home and away, before splitting.
The top six sides at the end of the regular season will enter a Championship Round, where they play each other once more and will retain the points earned from the regular season. Teams from 1st to 3rd in the regular season will have the advantage of extra home games in the final phase. The top three automatically qualify for Europe, whilst 4th or 5th (depending on the cup winners) enters a playoff.
The teams that finish 7–10th enter the Europa League playoffs, where they face off in a First and Second round knockout before the winner will play the 4th place finisher for the final Europa League berth. All the matches are played over two legs.
The bottom six sides follow a similar format as the top six do. The bottom-placed side is automatically relegated, whilst 15th place will face off against 2nd in the Second Division and 14th against 3rd for the right to stay in the Fortuna Liga for the following season.
3. Denmark
Now for the more complicated leagues. Our Nordic cousins also implement a split — of sorts. The 14-team Danish Superliga plays a regular season consisting of 26 matches where every side plays each other home and away before splitting. However, the league splits into three mini-divisions. The top six play each other twice more for the European slots, where the top two sides qualify automatically for Europe. The bottom eight are divided into two groups, Relegation Groups A and B.
Points are carried over, from the regular season. The top two sides from each Relegation group enter a Europa League play-off, where they play a QF and SF before the winners face the highest placed side in the top six that hasn’t already qualified for Europe in a one-legged playoff, played at the higher placed team ground.
The bottom two sides from each of the relegation groups enter a relegation play-off. In this, the last placed-team in each group faces off in a survival match, where the loser is relegated, the winner faces off against the runner-up of the First Division in their last chance saloon to stay in the Superliga. Whilst the two third-placed teams in the relegation group play each other and the winner survives and the loser plays third in the First Division in a play-off final. Simples.
Here’s a flow chart to explain it:
4. Belgium
If you thought the Danish league was difficult to understand wait until you meet its Belgium counterpart. I’m pretty sure this system was conceived by an EU bureaucrat in Brussels, as it’s so convoluted, it probably needs a 60-page document to explain how it works fully. The First Division A play the same regular season model as the Czechs, 16 teams and 30 games. However, their split is something else.
Teams in the top six play each other twice, home and away, making 40 matches in total. Points from the regular season are halved and rounded upwards — if a side finishes on 61pts, they would start the split with 31pts. The top three sides automatically qualify for Europe whilst fourth/fifth (depending on cup winner) place enters a playoff for the final berth.
The bottom side is automatically relegated after 30 matches and is replaced by the Winners of the First Division B. The winners of First Division B are determined by a promotion playoff between the league leaders after the first 14 matches in autumn and the leaders of the second set of 14 matches in the spring. A format which is used quite successfully in South America.
Teams that finish 7th-15th are joined by the Promotion Playoff losers, as well as 3rd and 4th place in the combined First Division B table for the Europa League Playoffs. There is no promotion nor relegation from these playoffs and points aren’t carried over either. These sides play in two groups of six over ten matches. The winners of each group face each other in a one-legged semi-final (played at the side with the most points’ ground) before the victors face the fifth-place team mentioned earlier for the final Europa League berth.
If you didn’t understand that, don’t worry I barely did. Here’s another flow chart to make it simplier:
Is there a method to this madness? No. To say its a mess is to do it an injustice — imagine if Ayr finished 4th in the Championship but couldn’t be promoted and instead played in a mini-league and had the chance to play Killie at Rugby Park in a one-legged playoff to determine which one of them would play in Europa League next season. Actually, now that I say that, the Belgians could be on to something here.
5. Northern Ireland
We started with a home nation so we’ll finish with one. Our neighbors from across the Irish Sea are another league that has taken inspiration from the Scottish model. The Danske Bank Premiership operates a 12 team league and splits after 33 matches played. The leagues season then finishes after 5 more matches, similar to Scotland, however, there are caveats.
The winners of the bottom six, and the sides that finish 3rd or 4th–6th enter a four or five team play-off for the Europa League berth in a similar vain to Wales. Relegation is almost a carbon copy of Scotland, 12th placed relegated and 11th place enters a relegation play-off against 2nd or 3rd in the Championship.
To conclude some of these are ideas that Scotland could implement, especially if the Scottish Premiership is expanded to 14 or 16 teams at a future point. Belgium’s format is intriguing and I suppose it gives every team something to play for come to the end of the season. However, their system makes a mockery of the regular season, and could you imagine trying to explain it to a guy down the pub. Although, ideas such as halving the number of points at the split would give every team something to play for and would make a title challenge from a side such as Aberdeen or Kilmarnock more likely and I would like to see implemented. However, something tells me Celtic and Rangers might not be willing to touch that proposal with a ten-foot barge pole.
Is there any other mental European leagues I’ve not mentioned, let me know by messaging me on twitter — @alexmarr98
