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.
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 1998–99 UEFA Champions League was the 44th season of the UEFA Champions League, Europe's premier club football tournament, and the seventh since it was renamed from the "European Champion Clubs' Cup" or "European Cup". The competition was won by Manchester United, coming back from a goal down in the last two minutes of injury time to defeat Bayern Munich 2–1 in the final. Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær scored United's goals after Bayern had hit the post and the bar. They were the first English club to win Europe's premier club football tournament since 1984 and were also the first English club to reach a Champions League final since the Heysel Stadium disaster and the subsequent banning of English clubs from all UEFA competitions between 1985 and 1990. It was the first time since 1968 that Manchester United won the Champions League, giving them their second title.
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.
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 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 AFC Champions League was the 32nd edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 11th under the current AFC Champions League title. The defending champions, Ulsan Hyundai, failed to qualify for the tournament.
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 2012-13 Coppa Titano is the 55th season of San Marino's oldest football competition. It began on 1 September 2012 with the first games of the Group Stage and will end in May 2013 with the final. La Fiorita are the defending champions, having won their second cup final last season.
The 2013–14 A Group was the 90th season of the top division of the Bulgarian football league system, and 66th since a league format was adopted for the national competition of A Group as a top tier of the pyramid. The season started on 19 July 2013 with the opening game between Chernomorets and Cherno More; the season ended on 18 May 2014 with the last game between Ludogorets Razgrad and Cherno More.
The 2014 Football Queensland season was the second season since NPL Queensland commenced as the top tier of Queensland men's football. Below NPL Queensland is a regional structure of ten zones with their own leagues. The strongest of the zones is Football Brisbane with its senior men's competition consisting of five divisions.
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