THE regular Football League season draws to a climax this weekend. But for a select few there will be plenty more to play for in the days and weeks ahead.

Twelve teams from the Championship down to League Two will compete in the end-of-season play-offs for the right to win promotion.

While the play-offs undoubtedly provide an enormous amount of excitement for all fans, both biased and neutral, is it really a fair system?

In the Championship, Nottingham Forest have proven that they have been the third-strongest side in the division, finishing three points ahead of Cardiff and Leicester and a whopping nine points ahead of Blackpool.

That advantage has been established over the course of 46 games and ten months. Yet, ultimately, the result will come down to a double-headed play-off semi-final against Blackpool, in which any number of variables could happen. Should they then progress, Forest would take part in a winner-takes-all final at Wembley. All very exciting, yes. But is it really the best way to reward a season’s work?

In League One the argument is different. Just two points separate third and sixth, with one more game to go. One team has struggled to pull away from the others and a play-off system seems one of the fairest solutions.

The fact is the play-offs are a money-spinning concept and one that all fans have come to accept.

However, surely there is an argument that such a system could and, perhaps should, exist at the opposite end of the table, too. After all, what is the difference between introducing the play-offs for promotion and relegation. Both has winners, both have losers.

Perhaps one solution to the debate is an inter-league play-off. This year it was Forest finishing in third place in the Championship. In the Premier League, Hull City have ended up in 18th. Should those two sides then not slug it out in a Wembley play-off, with the winner retaining – or winning – their top league status? That way everyone gets what they want, don’t they?