I love watching soccer, but there is one thing that I cannot stand that happens in leagues across the world: no playoffs.

In leagues such as the English Premier League, the winner of the league is determined by who has the most points by the end of the season. Teams receive three points for a win, one point for a tie, and no points for a loss.  As the season progresses, some teams break away from others in the standings like other leagues; however, the gap between teams is more important in the Premier League because the points do not decide which teams make it to playoffs but rather which team wins the title.

Without playoffs, the league is a little less entertaining because there becomes a point where most teams do not have a chance to win the trophy, so the rest of the season becomes pointless. While teams will still compete to get in the top four spots to qualify for the Champions League, they will be able to contest for the Premier League title.

This also prevents underdog teams from potentially winning the league title. While there are a few instances such as Leicester in 2016, most of the time, the powerhouse teams win. This is horrible because you miss out on upsets such as the ones that we have seen already in the first round of the NHL playoffs this year, which makes it more entertaining to watch. I am not a big hockey fan, but I enjoyed watching the Bruins lose to the Panthers because Boston was favored to win the Stanley Cup but lost because of the playoff system. If the Stanley Cup was decided on which team had the most points at the end of the season, the Bruins would have won it weeks ago, but because of the playoffs, the team did not.

Some people may see the point system as good because it awards the trophy to the team that has been the best all season, which is fair; however, that is not what sports are about. If you really think about it, sports leagues are just big entertainment companies, and in order to make the most amount of money, the leagues need to entertain the fans. The playoff system offers fans the most entertaining way to decide which team wins the league. Not only does it include more teams, but it also provides iconic moments in meaningful games, which is more entertaining.

To solve the problem of being “too boring” for most people, leagues across the world need to adopt the playoff system because it would cause people to be more engaged with the leagues, and overall, soccer would be more entertaining to watch all season long.