Views from the Sieve

Does this mean the club be happy getting 7th place.

Taken from the dagenham & Redbridge post. Dagenham & Redbridge managing director Steve Thompson reveals club voted in favour of National League play-off changes

PUBLISHED: 16:00 16 June 2017 Ned Keating

Dagenham & Redbridge were beaten by Forest Green Rovers in last season's National League play-off semi-finals (pic: David Simpson/TGS Photo)
Teams as low as seventh will now qualify for play-offs under new rules

At the competition’s AGM on Saturday, clubs across all three National League competitions opted to accept changes to the play-offs that would see teams as low as seventh qualify.

Under the new rules, to be in force from this coming season, the team in first would still go up as champions, with second and third receiving a bye to the play-off semi-finals.

In the quarter-finals, fourth would host seventh while fifth would entertain sixth, with the ties played over one leg.

In the semis, second would welcome the winners of fourth against seventh, while the victors of the other quarter-final would travel to third, with the ties again over one leg.

The final will take place at Wembley in May as per usual, and Thompson revealed the reasoning why Daggers voted in favour of the changes.

“The vote was only ever really a rubber stamping and the process regarding the change to the play-offs had started even before we became members of the league,” he said.

“We fully support it as it gives the teams finishing second and third a real advantage as you only have to play one game at home before the final at Wembley.

“When you have a system where only two go up and one of those is through the play-offs, anything that favours second or third must only be a positive.

“The changes will mean more teams have something to play for at the end of the season and you always want your team to be playing exciting games every week.We couldn’t do anything other than vote in favour of the changes because we supported the principle.”

At the AGM, it was also confirmed that the National League fixtures would be released at 1pm on July 5, and that the competition would see referees use vanishing spray for the first time. It is hoped the use of vanishing spray will allow officials to properly mark out the distance between taker and wall for the free-kick, with teams across the National League last season regularly failing to make it back the required 10 yards as referees struggled to police it.

It's a deal to keep everyone happy isn't it. Top teams will like the potential of an easier route to the final and everyone else likes the idea of a better chance of promotion.

This is why votes are not the way to decide this. Everyone is out for themselves and to increase finances to the detriment of the integrity of the competition. Principals are long gone in football.

Yep. If they were simply worried about giving 2nd and 3rd home advantage in a one leg semi, they could have tabled that as a rule change.

@daggernewbie

Please can I make a suggestion?
When it's an article in the local paper, please could you post the URL/link to the article on the newspaper's website, rather than copying and pasting the whole article in the thread? This means the newspaper gets the clicks and it hopefully helps their advertising revenue (and keeps people employed). I'm sure the Post would appreciate it too - it's one of their journalists who has done the work.

It's no big deal for me or anyone else to click a link for the news.

Local papers are struggling at the moment and it would be good if we could keep supporting the Post in this way.

I always buy the B&D post. That helps too!!

durnzo wrote:I always buy the B&D post. That helps too!!

brilliant!

as for us voting of course we did we are one of the bigger clubs in the league so a bad season could easily still see us in the playoffs.

put it this way anybody not think we wont finish 7th this year?

we will be looking to win the league of course but if not lets give us the best chance.
of course play offs are a lottery and finishing 2nd and not getting promoted is a kick in nads but there the rules and all have voted

how else other than a vote at a agm are they supposed to propose changes?

24th in league two relegated,replaced by champions of conference.
23rd in league two relegated, replaced by runners up in conference.

22nd in league two entered in play-offs with 3rd, 4th, 5th in conference. Eventual winner enters league two.

Just a thought.

it should be 3 up 3 down, wasnt so long ago only 1 went up now only 2. basically just pick on little guy

I think nearly all of us would expect following last season's good standing and the new personal we've brought on board we'd end up well clear of 7th but anybody really thought about the consequences of finishing there or any other team for that matter and say being 20 points lower or so from 2nd, 3rd etc and eventually winning in the play off final and promotion think it would rebound back perhaps nastily from away fans following season toward that team and fans as the 'feel sorry factor' kicks in for sides who won and drew more games and accumulated more points throughout the season. Understandable that club's fans would probably say so what were up but to my knowledge this has never gone as low as this, thus no club has won it from that depth , I agree making the play offs more exciting and a change here or there could come out trumps but no one thought a non league club would ever get to the quarter finals of the F.A cup and look what happened last season so its going to happen some day.

And in a previous topic posted some weeks back, I think the relegation final spot can be settled in a similar fashion. It just keeps many clubs interested right up until end of season at both ends of the table