WHEN the intricacies of Dáil procedure are well known and the creation of the US Treasury can be part of a hit musical, football’s need for simplicity is an outlier.
John Giles might often repeat that football is a simple game but UEFA were determined to make sure their competition formats were not.
Manchester City could easily be knocked out of the Champions League on Wednesday[/caption]
The Nations League caused confusion by determining Euro play-offs, but the 12-month wait gap to see how meant no added drama around a 0-0 with Denmark.
Then there was the 2023 Women’s World Cup qualifiers.
Ireland beat Finland to secure a play-off, beat Slovakia to skip one, and then kicked off a play-off with Scotland not knowing if winning it meant the World Cup or another two play-offs.
On the morning of that Scotland game in 2022, I wrote an explanation of it all that was printed under a picture of Alan Partridge’s Soccer-meter.
Yet we all caught up and accepted it.
There was no need for explanations about Nations League promotion and relegation play-offs.
And only the disinterested did not understand why that Ireland’s women’s team lost five of their six Euro 2025 qualifiers because they are now tiered.
Similarly, UEFA’s introduction of the ‘Swiss model’ to club competitions that introduced seedings has been fantastic.
Sure a lot of teams are already through but that was the case under the old system.
But this one gave us Liverpool-Real Madrid and PSG-Manchester City, plus more meaningful games on the final day than the old way.
It works in Europe too as we have never expected the best team in Europe to win the Champions League; after all, you do not even need to be a champion to be in it.
Actual leagues are different and the best team always wins.
We can argue about eras – one I saw over Christmas was over whether Dundalk’s 2016 Europa League was better than Shamrock Rovers’ current Conference League.
We cannot argue over who were the best team each season in the league.
But the need for more meaningful games has led to different more complicated systems to be introduced.
In Belgium, the top six all halve their points from the opening 30 games of the season – a half point is rounded up – before another round of games.
Scotland has long had an end of season split and it was attempted without any great success in terms of crowds in the League of Ireland in the 1990s.
It was done to create more meaningful games and is understandable in an era where no one can no longer beat anyone as the gaps between the top and the bottom grow.
The key was it meant more meaningful games and was a factor in Kieran Lucid’s all-island league proposal while the LOI investigated mid-season splits again in 2019.
Ultimately there was little appetite for it, and the competitive balance last season where three of the five games on the last day had something riding on them was great entertainment.
But last year was the first year in a decade when the title was decided on the last day, and only once since 2008 has neither Shamrock Rovers or Dundalk been in the top two.
Dundalk’s fall since then proves anything can happen, but the LOI is not immune to the predictability.
But let’s hope it remains unpredictable for a while yet.
Because a league where who are called ‘Rovers’ starts rows will never be ready for an argument over who is the best team.
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