In chez deiseach, marital bliss is all about compromise. When it comes to English newspapers, I prefer the Guardian and Mrs d prefers the Times. So when we buy an English newspaper, in the spirit of the aforementioned compromise, we buy the Times.
I kid, I kid because I love. In truth the Times is a perfectly decent rag, and one of the best things in it is Daniel Finkelstein’s Fink Tank, an attempt to predict outcomes by the ruthless application of statistics. Finkelstein came to mind when reading extratime.ie’s preview of the First Division run-in.
How so? A while back, Finkelstein observed that the English Football League Championship (the old First Division) is ridiculously hard to predict because of the massive amount of variables involved. Who would have seen at the start of the season the likes of Reading and Ipswich Town languishing at the bottom of the table? Who would have predicted in recent years the likes of Stoke City and Hull City bigging it up at the top, to the point where they could eventually escape the division’s clutches? It is for this reason that Finkelstein felt that the rebranding of the competition as ‘The Championship’ was not ridiculed by all and sundry. The Championship was a serious Competition, unlike the bloatfest that was the English Premier League where only stupendous amounts of Arab money could hope to crack the oligopoly of the Big Four.
With that in mind, observe the preposterously exciting end to the 2009 League of Ireland First Division. Shelbourne, UCD, Sporting Fingal and the Blues are left. One team will win the title. One will be promoted. One will enter the playoff. And one will get nothing. The prizes on offer cover the full range of emotions. It would almost make you care about the eventual outcome.
Update: the promotion opportunities are not as generous as I first thought, with only the champions being automatically promoted. Second and third will play for the right to play the losers of the match between the teams that finished eight and ninth in the Premier Division. The principle remains the same though – there are benefits to finishing second as you get home advantage in the playoff. And winning the title becomes ever more important.
