Have you ever as a man tried to explain the offside rule to
a woman only to be left with a blank face staring back at you? That’s not meant
as a sexist remark, there are of course women who understand the offside rule
equally as well as men do in every single walk of life across every continent
of the globe. But for those women who have no interest in football at all in
can be somewhat of a struggle if and when they ever do choose to ask what the
rule actually means. Well today a brand new discovery with complications that
surround footballing laws and regulations around the globe that even us men
will be scratching our heads over. Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the world of
Argentinean football.
Not since the Duckworth Lewis Method was introduced to the
game of cricket has there been a method of deciding relegation from a countries
top league as complicated as takes place within the Argentinean League. In the
English Premier League every side must play each other home and away and at the
end of the season the three clubs with the lowest points total will be
relegated and be replaced by the top two sides in the Championship and one side
who have become one side of four to progress through a playoff system at the
end of the season having finished between 3rd and 6th
place respectively. A lottery of sorts if you will.
It may not be the most fair system to determine what happens
in terms of promotion but neither will winning the World Cup or Champions
League on penalties after so many games. This is football and every team starts
every competition aware of the rules. To lose out on a penalty shoot out as fan
is always harsh. To possibly win a league title and still be relegated will
take some explaining and even having spent the day trying to work out the finer
details I’m not sure even I understand totally what happens several thousand
miles away in Argentina’s top Division.
This all started with a BBC blog about the Argentine club
Tigre who could possibly win the league title and be relegated in the same
season? Sorry? Say that again? You could win the title and yet relegated in the
same season? Erm?!?!? My own team Portsmouth found themselves in the final of
the FA Cup and lost and were relegated in the same season but to win the league
and be relegated how does that compute and configure in the grand scale of
things? I sure as hell cannot tell you what the Duckworth and Lewis method is
in the game of cricket. I think I can just about start to understand what
happens in the Argentine league to meet the rules of who stays up and who gets relegated.
Give me a salt grinder, a pepper pot and a ketchup bottle over dinner to
explain to a non football female fan of football than trying to work out how
the Argentine league system actually works in terms of relegation from the top
tier.
To quote Tim Vickery and his BBC blog
This apparent absurdity is possible because radically different time frames are used at either end of the table. Winning the title is a sprint. The campaign is just 19 games long with all the teams facing each other once, meaning two separate championships can be played each year.
Relegation, meanwhile, is a marathon. It is worked out on an average of points accumulated over the course of six championships or three years (teams have their points divided by the number of games played - 114 for those who have spent the last three years in the first division, 76 for those present in the last two and 38 for the clubs promoted a year ago).
Are you still with me at this juncture? No neither am I in
fairness but if the Argentine league can be played twice in one season equivalent
to the EPL then the same equation can apply by simply doubling the equation and
working out season by season that if the same rules applied in the English
leagues who would have been relegated and who would have found themselves in a playoff
position to fight for the top flight survival. Did Tim Vickery not mention that
point? Yes it gets even more complicated.
So in the English Premier League last season; Wolves, Bolton
and Blackburn were relegated and this season they will be replaced by Reading,
Southampton and West Ham. That’s quite simple. If the same rules applied in the
EPL as in Argentina then Wolves and QPR would have been relegated – Yes QPR
Survived. Reading and Southampton would have been promoted. Bolton and Wigan
would have faced West Ham and Birmingham in a playoff situation and despite finishing
second bottom Blackburn Rovers wouldn’t have been relegated. Are you all still
following this?
Take the season before under the same ruling; Wolves would
have already been relegated to be joined jointly with Blackpool and Birmingham.
I can only surmise that there’s a rule about results during the season and a
count back system. No I’m not following it either but one of the four mentioned
clubs plus West Brom would have faced either Welsh teams Swansea City or
Cardiff City in a playoff situation.
West Ham, Birmingham and Blackpool were eventually
relegated. So not far off but potentially either Birmingham or Blackpool could
have stayed up.
I’m as lost as you are so don’t panic.
So go back to the season where Pompey where relegated having
been docked points for going into administration and having finished bottom of
the league. Under the Argentinean league structure we wouldn’t have been automatically
relegated. Burnley and Hull would have occupied the bottom two positions and
Nottingham Forest and Cardiff would have been the contenders in the play off
slots. Wolves would have once more taken one of the playoff slots and I think
we would have taken the last slot if results home and away against Bolton would
have counted. Again I’m not sure but I can surmise that despite finishing
bottom of the league and having points deducted we wouldn’t have been totally
down and out given our previous two league finishes.
Now if anyone having read all that can one hundred and ten
per cent tell me if what I’ve said in this blog is totally correct then you’ve just
had the day I’ve spent trying to work it out in comparison. My dad before his
retirement was Chief Accountant of the local council for many years before he
retired.
I do not claim to know how the Duckworth and Lewis method
works in cricket or how the relegation rule works in Argentinean football.
Buts let’s just say if I have got the basic notion of how it
works that Portsmouth FC despite being docked nine points for entering administration
and finishing bottom of the league wouldn’t have seen us relegated that season
if Argentinean rules had applied.
As a son of Irish heritage could I argue that the hand of
God Might have ruled in our favour per se had we not have a simple rule of
three up three down? Just maybe…
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