SHOULD THE NUMBER OF CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SPOTS BE INCREASED FROM FOUR TO SIX?

‘Nobody does drama like the Championship does drama’, you'll regularly hear Sky Sports commentator Gary Weaver shout into his microphone, while calling whichever game he’s doing that particular week. And he’s right.

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Season after season, the Championship does provide more drama, twists and turns than any other league, which is never more epitomised than when the end-of-season lottery of the playoffs is reached. Year after year, the playoffs provide such drama. Looking back to last season's playoffs, Coventry and Sheffield United fans may disagree that it was entertaining, but Sunderland supporters certainly will not.

It’s not uncommon to get to the latter stages of the regular season with the vast majority of Championship teams still in a relegation scrap, pushing for automatic promotion or battling for that last playoff place. By expanding the playoff places down to eighth in the league, it removes any end-of-season dead rubbers as teams in the top half have a real chance of making the playoffs going into the final two games and, therefore, a chance of reaching the Premier League.