Editing Playoffs (section)

=== Scotland ===
The [[Scottish Football League]] (SFL) experimented briefly with test matches in 1995–96 and 1996–97, contested between the second-bottom team of the Premier Division and the second-placed team of the First Division.

After the [[Scottish Premier League]] (SPL) and SFL merged in 2013 to form the [[Scottish Professional Football League]] (SPFL), reuniting the top four divisions of Scotland since the breakaway of the SPL in [[1998–99 Scottish Premier League|1998–99]], a modified test match format was introduced between the [[Scottish Premiership]] and [[Scottish Championship]]. The bottom team from the first-tier Premiership is automatically relegated and is replaced by the winners of the second-tier Championship, provided that club meets Premiership entry criteria. The second-, third- and fourth-placed teams from the Championship qualify for a play-off consisting of two-legged ties, with the second-placed team receiving a bye to play the winner of the teams that finished third and fourth. The winner of this play-off then faces the second-bottom Premiership team, also over two legs, with the winner of that tie taking up the final Premiership place (again, assuming that the Championship club meets Premiership criteria).

The three lower divisions of the SPFL — the Championship, [[Scottish League One|League One]] and [[Scottish League Two|League Two]] — continue with the promotion/relegation play-off system their predecessor SFL leagues used (the [[Scottish Football League First Division|First Division]], [[Scottish Football League Second Division|Second Division]] and [[Scottish Football League Third Division|Third Division]], respectively). In the Championship/League One and League One/League Two, while the champions are automatically promoted and the bottom team relegated, there are play-offs of the second-bottom teams against the second-, third- and fourth-placed teams from the division below. Home and away ties decide semi-finals and a final, and the overall winner plays in the higher division the following season, with the loser playing in the lower division.

Beginning with the 2014–15 season, promotion and relegation between the SPFL and the Scottish regional leagues were introduced. Following the end of the league season, the winners of the fifth-level [[Highland Football League|Highland]] and [[Lowland Football League|Lowland]] Leagues compete in a two-legged playoff. The winner then enters a two-legged playoff against the bottom team from Scottish League Two, with the winner of that tie either remaining in or promoted to League Two.

Long before the SPL era, two situations arose in which the top two teams in the table had to share the title as neither goal average nor goal difference had been instituted to break ties. The first was [[1890–91 Scottish Football League|the inaugural season]], in which [[Dumbarton F.C.|Dumbarton]] and [[Rangers F.C.|Rangers]] both earned 29 points and had to play off for the title. The match ended in a 0–0 draw and both teams shared the title. The second happened 19 years later, in the [[1909–10 Scottish Second Division|Second Division]], when [[Leith Athletic F.C.|Leith Athletic]] and [[Raith Rovers F.C.|Raith Rovers]] both earned 33 points. This time, the clubs chose not to play off. In 1915 goal average was finally instituted.