Monday, May 30, 2016

2016 English Football Playoffs Done

The promotion playoffs in English football are done.  Here's who's getting promoted via playoffs:

Championship to Premier League: Hull City - Mike is not quite happy about this one because (a) Hull were promoted at the direct expense of Sheffield Wednesday, and (b) it's at least one more year we're going to have to hear about the owner wanting to change the name of the club to Hull Tigers.

In fact, Mike will make a bold prediction about the 2016-17 Championship right now, and it will have batsu game implications: Aston Villa (minus the idiots who got them relegated) and Sheffield Wednesday will be two of the three promoted clubs next year.

League 1 to Championship: Barnsley - Well, at least it wasn't Millwall (when you think football hooligans and fan violence, Millwall are usually one of the first clubs that come to mind).

League 2 to League 1: AFC Wimbledon - Great job out of AFC Wimbledon!  Next year we'll see the Dons play that other club - MK Dons, who were relegated from the Championship.  NFL fans, think Cleveland Browns vs. Baltimore Ravens circa 1999, with AFCW playing the part of the Browns (ironically owned at the time by the father of Randy Lerner, who just sold Villa to Tony Xia, a Harvard-educated Chinese doctor and businessman) and MK Dons playing the part of the Ravens and the actual Art Modell.

Conference/National League to League 2: Grimsby Town - At least we can't make fun of them for sharing their name with a color (Forest Green).