Quote Originally Posted by Rjk View Post
Not really, there's a separate trophy to be won, as well as promotion and relegation, it gives teams a shot at qualifying who never usually have anything to play for.
A trophy mini-tournament for the top group only. "Promotion and relegation" to try and keep the semi meaningless friendlies between sides of a similar standard while not destroying the fixture list with the same fixtures in each edition of the "League".
You are right though that it gives sides who can't qualify from the qualifiers "proper" another chance at qualifying. Personally I think it will unravel after the quality of the sides coming through from the lower groups have embarrassed themselves at a finals.