Latest EFL plan spells trouble for Wrexham’s Premier League promotion hopes via Championship playoffs from next season onwards.
With 15 Championship games remaining, Wrexham’s playoffs hopes are perfectly 50-50 in the balance. Boss Phil Parkinson and the players have demonstrated they know how to win consecutive games when it matters the most. At the same time, 3 more Championship underdogs are knocking on the playoffs doors at the moment.
Every Wrexham fan has heard how thrilling the Championship playoffs are every year. Likewise, the 2025/26 season’s playoffs race is also heating up. From next year, there can be more chaos to it. And it will only increase Wrexham’s troubles further.
EFL plan for Championship playoffs
The Championship playoffs are set for a possible shift in format beginning from the succeeding 2026/27 season. In their own words, the Athletic shed light on EFL plan’s saying: “Clubs in the English Football League are set to vote on plans to expand the Championship play-offs to six teams at an extraordinary general meeting on March 5.”
The report touched upon a possible playoffs path where teams ranked 5th to 8th battle it out for a semi-finals place over a single leg. Then, the two winners will take on clubs sitting at 3rd and 4th in the Championship to then follow the existing two-legged knockout semi-finals fashion. Then, there will be the usual grand Wembley showdown in the final to decide the eventual playoffs winner.
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From the outside, this plan empowers those Championship clubs who pulled their best campaign in years but still got narrowly left out of the top 6. Blackburn Rovers and Millwall suffered this cruel fate last season, as the duo fell short of the playoffs by only two points.
Talking of Wrexham, this change can give them a significant upper hand for making it to the playoffs provided Phil Parkinson’s men are unable to reach the Premier League at the end of this season. However, this EFL plan also spells massive trouble for Wrexham’s Premier League hopes.
EFL plan spells trouble for Wrexham’s promotion hopes
Going by the looks of things, the EFL is attempting to imitate the National League fashioned playoffs knockouts. Except, the fact that two automatic promotions will still remain in second-tier football.
Now, Wrexham made it out of the National League not long ago. There are plenty of nostalgic memories of the Reds from those non-league days. Still, Wrexham fans won’t forget that a strong 21/22 National League campaign ended meaningless because of a shocking 5-4 elimination in the playoffs semi-final.
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Entering directly into the semi-final, the Red Dragons were huge favourites to atleast make it to the grand final. But a spirited Grimsby Town side dashed those hopes with a 119th minute 5-4 winner. As fate had it, they won the playoffs final as well again in extra time.
Grimsby Town finished four places behind Wrexham but still got promoted at the Reds expense. This is the dark side of extending the four-team playoffs format to six teams. A team finishing just inside the playoffs spots doesn’t always rue their missed promotion chance.
But the ones who were higher ranked than them and still couldn’t gain promotion via playoffs definitely lament their campaign. Should Wrexham suffer their old National League playoffs fate again in the Championship, maybe it might take them a good few seasons to recover from it.
Hopefully, the new Championship playoffs doesn’t remain a point of discussion for Premier League chasing-Wrexham next season.
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