The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be either a single game, a series of games, or a tournament, and may use a single-elimination system or one of several other different playoff formats. Playoff, in regard to international fixtures, is to qualify or progress to the next round of a competition or tournament.
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
- One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentrated into a relatively short time interval.
- A competition involving a number of matches, each involving a subset of the competitors, with the overall tournament winner determined based on the combined results of these individual matches. These are common in those sports and games where each match must involve a small number of competitors: often precisely two, as in most team sports, racket sports and combat sports, many card games and board games, and many forms of competitive debating. Such tournaments allow large numbers to compete against each other in spite of the restriction on numbers in a single match.
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, whose winner becomes the tournament champion. Each match-up may be a single match or several, for example two-legged ties in European sports or best-of series in American pro sports. Defeated competitors may play no further part after losing, or may participate in "consolation" or "classification" matches against other losers to determine the lower final rankings; for example, a third place playoff between losing semi-finalists. In a shootout poker tournament, there are more than two players competing at each table, and sometimes more than one progressing to the next round. Some competitions are held with a pure single-elimination tournament system. Others have many phases, with the last being a single-elimination final stage, often called playoffs.
In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments, and after applied in women's football and futsal, the coefficients are calculated by UEFA, who administer football within Europe, as well as Armenia, Israel and the Asian parts of some transcontinental countries.
The OFC Champions League, also known as the O-League, is the premier men's club soccer competition in Oceania. It is organised by the OFC, Oceania's football governing body. Beginning as the Oceania Club Championship (1987–2006), it has been organised since 2007 under its current format.
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the single elimination, the best-of- series, the total points series more commonly known as on aggregate, and the round-robin tournament.
The 2003–04 UEFA Champions League was the 12th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since its rebranding from the European Cup in 1992, and the 49th tournament overall. The competition was won by Portugal's Porto, who defeated Monaco of France 3–0 at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany for Portugal's first win since 1987. This was Porto's second European trophy in two years, following their UEFA Cup success from the previous season. This was the first UEFA Champions League competition to feature a 16-team knockout round instead of a second group stage.
A wild card is a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that fails to qualify in the normal way; for example, by having a high ranking or winning a qualifying stage. In some events, wildcards are chosen freely by the organizers. Other events have fixed rules. Some North American professional sports leagues compare the records of teams which did not qualify directly by winning a division or conference.
The 1966–67 Intertoto Cup was won by Eintracht Frankfurt in the final against Inter Bratislava, the last final of the tournament in the traditional '1 cup, 1 winner' sense. This was also last season that knock-out rounds were contested, until UEFA took over the competition in 1995, and the last ever occasion that an outright winner was declared. Although the competition had returned to the old 32 clubs / eight groups format the year before, this was altered with the tournament expanding to 40 clubs / ten groups.
EuroCup Basketball, commonly known as the EuroCup and currently called 7DAYS EuroCup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual professional basketball club competition that has been organized by Euroleague Basketball since 2002. Behind the EuroLeague, the league is regarded as Europe's second-tier professional basketball club tournament.
The FIBA EuroCup is the former name of an international professional basketball club competition for clubs throughout Europe that was renamed the FIBA EuroChallenge in July 2008. The 2007–08 season, the last for the competition under the EuroCup banner, featured 38 competing teams, from 23 different countries. The draw for the groups was held on August 5, 2007, at the Kempinski Hotel in Munich.
Coppa Titano 2008–09 was the forty-ninth season of San Marino's oldest football competition. It began on 2 October 2008 with the first games of the Group Stage and ended on 4 May 2009 with the Final held at Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle. Murata were the defending champions. The winners of the competition earned a place in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League 2009–10.
The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil. The remaining 31 places were determined by a qualification process, in which the other 207 teams, from the six FIFA confederations, competed. Most of the successful teams were determined within these confederations, with a limited number of inter-confederation play-offs occurring at the end of the process.
The 2009-10 Coppa Titano was the fiftieth season of San Marino's oldest football competition. It began on 12 September 2009 with the first games of the Group Stage and ended in 2010 with the Final held at Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle. Juvenes/Dogana were the defending champions, having won their eighth cup final last season.
The 2010-11 Coppa Titano was the fifty-third season of San Marino's oldest football competition. It began on 11 September 2010 with the first games of the Group Stage and ended in 2011 with the Final held at Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle. Tre Fiori were the defending champions, having won their sixth cup final last season.
The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
2011–12 Albanian Cup was the sixtieth season of Albania's annual cup competition. The winners of the competition qualified for the first qualifying round of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. KF Tirana are the defending champions, having won their 14th Albanian Cup last season.
The 2011-12 Coppa Titano was the 54th season of San Marino's oldest football competition. It began on 10 September 2011 with the first games of the Group Stage and ended on 2 May 2012 with the final held at Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle. Juvenes/Dogana were the defending champions, having won their second cup final last season.
The 2013–14 UEFA Champions League was the 59th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 22nd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
The 2013-14 Coppa Titano is the 56th season of San Marino's oldest football competition. It begins on 23 September 2013 with the first games of the Group Stage and will end in May 2014 with the final. La Fiorita are the defending champions, having won their third cup final last season.
San Marino 