Winning the league to mean nothing

By Denise
August 16 2002

Today it was reported in the Daily Mail that there is to be a major overhaul of the uninspiring Zurich Championship that means that the play-offs are cut down and winning the league is meaningless.

The proposals are to reduce the play-offs to the top three teams after 22 league games. With the second and third placed teams playing off for the chance to knock the league winners off their perch in a winner-takes-all final. The league winners no longer being seen as the best in the league.

This new format has the benefit of reducing the number of games played and giving the fans a big day out to look forward to. Certainly it is an improvement of the format used in the last two years eliminating the farcical possiblity of an 8th placed team in a league of 12 going on to be crowned champions. However, every team can be beaten on its day and even if a team had out-performed every other all through the season they could walk away with nothing to show for it.

The proposal is yet to accepted but that is a mere formality and the change is expected to be announced on 29th August.