Southampton boss warns EFL over play-off schedule risk | OneFootball

Daily Echo reports that Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert has urged the EFL to avoid a play-off schedule that leaves higher finishers idle long enough to lose rhythm.

The Championship play-offs will expand to six teams next season, with an extra one-legged eliminator preceding the semi-finals. Clubs approved the change at an all-club meeting on Thursday.

Teams finishing third to eighth will take part, with third and fourth receiving byes to the semi-finals and skipping the eliminator. A proposed timetable could leave those sides waiting up to two weeks between the final league game and their semi-final.

Eckert, whose seventh-placed Saints would benefit if the current table repeated, cautioned that an extended break can blunt momentum after a long season, and that regaining it is not easy.

The National League already runs a six-team play-off, with second and third advancing directly to the last four. Only once in eight seasons has a team from outside the traditional four won it, and five winners have come from the top two qualifiers.

Backers of the revamp argue it could enliven the run-in by widening the field. Eckert added that many decisions in sport are commercially driven, not only in football.

Source: Daily Echo