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.
The English Football League Trophy, currently known as Bristol Street Motors Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in levels three and four of the English football pyramid, with the addition of 16 under-21 teams from Premier League and EFL Championship clubs since the 2016–17 season.
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 bracket or tournament bracket is a tree diagram that represents the series of games played during a knockout tournament. Different knockout tournament formats have different brackets; the simplest and most common is that of the single-elimination tournament. The name "bracket" is American English, derived from the resemblance of the links in the tree diagram to the bracket punctuation symbol ] or [. The closest British term is draw, although this implies an element of chance, whereas some brackets are determined entirely by seeding.
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 North 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 progresses 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 Watney Mann Invitation Cup was a short-lived English football tournament held in the early 1970s.
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.
A wild card is a tournament or playoff berth awarded to a team or individual that does not directly qualify. 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.
In sports, a bye is the preferential status of a player or team that is automatically advanced to the next round of a tournament without having to play an opponent in an early round.
York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in York, North Yorkshire, England. The history of York City F.C. from 1922 to 1980 covers the period from the club's foundation, through their progress in the Football League, to the end of the 1979–80 season.
The Football League Third Division South Cup was a football knockout competition open to teams competing in Football League Third Division South.
The CONCACAF Champions Cup is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. It is the most important tournament in CONCACAF club football. The winner of the CONCACAF Champions Cup automatically qualifies for the FIFA Club World Cup and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup.
The 1938–39 FA Cup was the 64th season of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Portsmouth won the competition for the first time, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 4–1 in the final at Wembley. As this was the last full FA Cup competition before the Second World War, Portsmouth held the trophy until the end of the 1945–46 season.
The 1960–61 Football League Cup was the inaugural staging of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The competition began on 26 September 1960, and ended with the two-legged final almost a year later on 22 August and 5 September 1961.
The 1988 Full Members' Cup final was the third Full Members' Cup final, contested by First Division side Luton Town and Second Division team Reading at Wembley Stadium on 27 March 1988. It was the first, and only, Full Members' Cup final for both teams. Reading were making their first appearance at the national stadium, while Luton had not played at the ground since 1959.
The 1966–67 Football League Cup was the seventh season of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The competition started on 23 August 1966 and ended with the final on 4 March 1967. This was the first season during which Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, and Wolverhampton participated in the League Cup; Everton and Liverpool were the only League teams that did not compete.
The 1968–69 Football League Cup was the ninth season of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The competition ended with the final on 15 March 1969.
The 1969–70 Football League Cup was the tenth season of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The competition started on 12 August 1969 and ended with the final on 7 March 1970.
The 1933–34 Cupa României was the inaugural season of the Romania's most prestigious football (soccer) cup competition.
The 2019–20 UEFA Europa League was the 49th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 11th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
Northern England 
Wales