Originally posted by Kevin S
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On the fairness issue, the argument is that a Top 4 finisher should not have to play a team from the league above in a playoff. 5th and below are not given that privilege. OTOH it is convenient for a League A team that it does not have to face a top League B team, despite the fact that the League A team will already have failed twice. It seems designed to protect a team like the Netherlands.
Bear in mind also that 20 teams qualify by the normal route so if you're in a playoff you weren't in the Top 20, which is 36.36% of the field. It's a stupid way to supply 16 playoff teams instead of the usual 8, based on results that took place 18 months earlier. Instead of a transparent 8 best 3rd placed teams, we have this mess, where you get a playoff by default because the team that beat you by Route X qualified by Route Y, giving you the escape clause even though you failed in X and Y.
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