AI names the winner of all three EFL play-off finals | OneFootball

EFL play-off final weekend is looming large at Wembley Stadium, but can AI successfully predict the winners?

After a gruelling 46-game regular season in the Championship, League One and League Two, the EFL's main spectacles are now upon us in the form of the play-off finals at Wembley Stadium.

The post-season lottery is now 40 years old, having first been incorporated in the 1986/87 season, when in the second tier showdown, Charlton Athletic staved off relegation from the-then First Division by staging a comeback against Leeds United at Birmingham City's St. Andrew's.

All finals, since 1990, have mainly been held at the old or new Wembley, aside from a handful of years at Cardiff's Principiality Stadium whilst the North London venue was undergoing a rebuild.

Throughout history, several names have written themselves into the folklore of the competition for their stunning heroics in front of goal or while keeping goal in finals at Championship, League One or League Two level, and the men throughout six squads will also look to put their names up in lights this weekend.

So often, finals are seen as cagey affairs decided by the occasional goal, and that was certainly the case in the 2025 spectacles in which Sunderland, Charlton and AFC Wimbledon came out on top.

However, Football League World has put AI-based chatbot, ChatGPT, to the test, to see if it can correctly predict the three winners of this weekend's finals.

Championship - Hull City vs Middlesbrough

The first of the three encounters comes at Championship level, with Hull City and Middlesbrough set to contest club football's 'richest game'.

This particular final's lead-up has been overshadowed by the 'Spygate' scandal involving Saints and Middlesbrough, with Tonda Eckert's side being expelled from the play-offs on Tuesday, May 19th, after admitting to multiple breaches of unauthorised filming within a 72-hour pre-kick-off timeslot, including the first semi-final at the Riverside Stadium on May 8th.

The Tigers, meanwhile, have defied the odds under Sergej Jakirovic time after time, and after returning to sixth spot on the final day of the season, overcame Millwall over two legs, with the decisive 2-0 win coming at The Den on May 11th.

It has been claimed by higher-ups at the MKM Stadium that the uncertainty has left the Bosnian's team at a disadvantage when it comes to sealing a remarkable promotion, while Middlesbrough's players had returned to training in the hope their 2-1 aggregate defeat to Saints in the semis would be wiped out.

However, AI claims that City will come out on top with a 2-0 victory, which would be their second over Kim Hellberg's men this term after both sides won their respective away fixtures in East Yorkshire and Teesside back in December.

League One - Bolton Wanderers vs Stockport County

The League One play-off final is an all-North West affair between Bolton Wanderers and Stockport County.

The Hatters are bound for Wembley for the second time this season after suffering a 3-1 defeat to Luton Town in the EFL Trophy final, whilst also looking to avenge their play-off disappointments of 2023 and 2025 against Carlisle United and Leyton Orient.

Bolton, meanwhile, have resided outside the top two divisions for seven years, and will hope Steven Schumacher makes it third time lucky in the League One play-offs after recent heartbreak against Barnsley and Oxford United, with the latter being a 2-0 loss at Wembley in May 2024.

Only two points separated these two clubs in the regular season, and they overcame Stevenage and Bradford City in the semi-finals by 3-0 and 2-0 aggregate scorelines respectively.

However, AI believes Stockport will have their day in the sun with a 1-0 success.

League Two - Salford City vs Notts County

The third and last of the play-off finals taking place on bank holiday Monday is between Salford City and Notts County, after both clubs narrowly saw off Grimsby Town and Chesterfield in the play-off semi-finals.

Salford's backing in recent times has been well-documented, but the Ammies are yet to make the step-up into League One for the first time ever, having previously come unstuck in the 2022/23 semi-finals. That said, they have won at the new Wembley twice in the 2018/19 National League play-off final and the 2020 EFL Trophy final against Portsmouth.

The Magpies, meanwhile, are back at Wembley for the first time in three years, and are hoping to reach the third tier for the first time since 2015, when they finished 21st.

This is the only one of this year's three finals where the two highest-placed sides will battle it out for North London supremacy, as only one point separated them in the regular season.

AI believes that this could, on paper, be the most entertaining of the three games, although it predicts that the likes of Gary Neville and David Beckham will suffer heartbreak as Martin Paterson's side win by two goals to one.