The Premier League's decision to rule out the idea of a Champions League play-off is a rare piece of good sense from football's authorities.
The concept is a better one than the ludicrous '39th game' idea, but then that's a bit like giving the Best Picture Oscar to Beverly Hills Chihuahua instead of The Hottie and the Nottie.
If the like of Spurs and Manchester City, or even Fulham and Blackburn, want to break into the top four, they'll have to do it the old-fashioned way: obscene spending.
Apart from the club that would have won the end-of-season play-off between the clubs that finished fourth to seventh, the main benefits would have been another set of lucrative fixtures for the Premier League and another match at Wembley. At least, that would have been the venue for the first few years, before the inevitable moving of the final to Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium. Either way, it would have made the game's top brass a lot more money, and cost fans of the team's involved a lot more too.
The idea does sound attractive in principal - matches played in an egalitarian spirit that would break up the stranglehold of the big four clubs on the Champions League places - but the reality doesn't stand up.
The system was introduced to the Dutch Eredivisie for the 2005-06 season, but was heavily criticised and proved unpopular. Far from grounds filling up a bonus, cup tie-style clash, matches were poorly-attended as season ticket-holders were unwilling to fork out on yet another match. Since its inception, the play-off system has been changed almost every year, and is now only contested for a Europa League spot.
England's European standing would also suffer if the seventh-placed team won the play-off for a few consecutive years and continually crashed out of the group stages. That could damage the nation's UEFA coefficient, denying the Premier League the fourth Champions League spot altogether.
Still, in less than month the idea has gone from proposal through discussion to rejection in a rather orderly manner. It's almost as if the whole thing was a ruse designed to give the world the illusion of efficiency within the corridors of power.
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COMING UP: More than you could possibly want or need ahead of the weekend's action, with team news for this weekend's Premier League, FA Cup and foreign fixtures. Jim White will deliver his latest blog, and The Fantasist will also be let out of its cage to misguide you on the best Fantasy Football tactics in Choose 'em or Lose 'em. And if it's pub ammo you're after, check out match facts for all this weekend's big games. Get the lowdown on Arsenal v Burnley, West Ham United v Bolton Wanderers, Wolverhampton Wanderers v Manchester United, Everton v Hull City and Wigan Athletic v Liverpool in the Premier League.