This weekend sees the annual climax to the domestic football season – the English Football League play-off finals.

Six teams will face off against each other in three divisional finals at Wembley Stadium, with three promotion places up for grabs as the gruelling nine-month slog of a season comes down to one final match.

As a Plymouth Argyle supporter, I was gutted to see my side finish seventh in the EFL League One table this season, narrowly missing out on the chance to take the third and final promotion spot in next season’s Championship.

At this point some of you will no doubt have a few questions. What? Seventh? Promotion?

Yes, because a laborious nine-month, 46-match campaign isn’t quite enough to determine the best three teams in the division apparently, so we’ll add another three games on top of that.

There are, of course, some benefits to the system. The play-offs were introduced in 1987 as a way of keeping the season alive right until the very end, thus preventing a glut of ‘dead rubber’ matches for those sides locked in mid-table obscurity come April and May.

Then there's the drama of it all. What's not to love about a sell-out stadium on a sunny Saturday evening in May, with fans of both sides frantically urging their respective team on as they desperately cling to their last hope of a memorable season?

However, what the play-offs gain in entertainment and drama, they lose in their sacrifice of sporting integrity. If we're going to settle a league on play-offs, what's the point of even having a league at all?

I still have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about AFC Wimbledon’s promotion from League Two in 2016. They came seventh in the league, but beat Argyle - who had finished fifth - in the play-off final to take the fourth and final spot, despite finishing ten points behind the actual fourth-placed side Accrington Stanley.

The farce has been extended further within the non-league pyramid this season. Cornwall's very own Truro City were the beneficiaries in the National League South, coming seventh in this year’s table and had the opportunity to claim one of just two promotion spots despite finishing below six other teams.

In the same division, Dartford conceded the title and the only automatic promotion slot to Havant & Waterlooville by virtue of having a goal difference just three goals inferior.

As a result, they dropped into the play-offs and promptly lost 1-0 in a one-game shootout against Braintree Town, who had finished sixth and some 17 points behind the Darts (their actual nickname - put some effort in, lads).

This madness is not limited to football. The RFU Championship has been in a constant battle over its play-off structure ever since the format’s introduction in 2008, before being scrapped completely as of this year.

Worst of all was an ill-fated three-year spell between 2009 and 2012 where the top eight teams in the 12-team league progressed to the end-of-season promotion play-offs.

That's right, you could conceivably win five play-off games to secure promotion despite finishing in the bottom half of the league after the 22 regular-season matches.

Sure, it’d make for a great story, but it doesn’t exactly do the integrity of the competition the world of good.

To make matters even worse, the Premiership rugby winner is even decided by the darn things. The honour of being the best rugby team in the country should surely be going to the best team over the eight-month campaign, not whoever comes out on top in a two-game free-for-all.

The Westcountry's top rugby side (sorry Cornish Pirates!) Exeter Chiefs even sealed their maiden top division crown last year via the aforementioned play-offs, after coming second to Wasps in the league stage.

In addition, they gained promotion to the Premiership in the first place by winning the Championship play-offs after once again finishing second in the league stage!

There is certainly a huge appeal surrounding the play-off format. They keep the season interesting for a number of teams, and they are undoubtedly fun to watch.

But as the old sporting saying goes, the league table never lies.