BURNLEY suffered a major setback last night when Football League clubs scrapped plans to introduce extra play-off places next season.

Clarets chairman Barry Kilby was a big backer of the idea, which would have allowed a team finishing as low as eighth a crack at promotion to the Premier League.

But objecting letters from FA and Premier League officials forced Football League clubs to shelve the plans at their annual meeting yesterday.

The scheme was one way the 72 Football League clubs were hoping to ease the financial crisis that has gripped them since last summer.

Rather than having sides playing meaningless mid-table matches towards the end of the season, more than half the clubs could have had something to play for.

The league's theory was that this would have kept attendances up towards the end of the campaign and generated much-needed extra revenue for cash-strapped clubs like the Clarets.

Kilby said today: "We were strong supporters of the idea so we're disappointed it's not going to happen, certainly for this season.

"It was a good chance to keep the season alive for clubs and allow fans to have excitement right down to the wire. There's nothing worse than the season being dead half-way through.

"We are in the entertainment business and it keeps revenue up as well.

"I think most clubs wanted it, obviously for the extra interest it would have given the competition."

Reservations from FA and Premier League chiefs meant the clubs decided to review the proposals, which could still be pushed through in future seasons.

Kilby added: "It was withdrawn because the FA has written to the league and said they would quite probably disallow it because it spoilt the integrity of the competition.

"The Premier League also wrote saying they didn't like the idea of someone in eighth place being in their division.

"I think the point they missed was that it was designed to give the team in third place a much better chance than they have now because they would only have to win one home game to get to the play-off final.

"There's still a good chance it will be introduced in the lower divisions because they don't have the complications of the Premier League."