The Football Federation of Cambodia has scrapped the Super Four playoff, which determined the Metfone C-League champions last year, bowing to demands from the majority of participating teams to stick to the time-tested practice of having the league winners taking home the title.

“We are doing away with the playoffs. The team emerging at the top of the league table [at the end of the season] will get the champions tag,” May Tola, Deputy Secretary of

the FFC, said to The Post on Saturday.

Most of the top tier teams said they preferred a straightforward league format, arguing that the Super Four imposed additional burdens on their squads already under strain from tough competitive conditions.

In the last two years, the playoffs had caused major heartache for the frontrunners in the league, with wild form swings occurring in the postseason.

In 2009, Phnom Penh Crown finished at the top of the heap at the end of the regular season, but were banished to fourth place in the playoffs with two successive defeats. Naga Corp, who had finished fourth in the league, bounced back to claim the title.

Last year the roles were somewhat reversed again, with Naga Corp going into the playoffs as league leaders but failing to emerge as champions as Phnom Penh Crown waltzed through to grab the honours after coming fourth in the table.

Meanwhile at the FFC’s annual general meeting on Saturday, General Secretary Ouk Sethycheat, who had resigned from his post for personal reasons some time ago, was elected as a member of the executive committee.

“The president has not yet named a successor to Mr Setheycheat,” May Tola said.