Third place playoff

Most sports using a knockout format in the Olympic Games have a third place game to determine who wins the bronze medal, with the exception being boxing which awards two bronze medals (judo, taekwondo, and wrestling, which also award two bronze medals, both feature two bronze medal matches, between the losing semi-finalists and the winners of the repechage). As the difference between a bronze medal and no medal is quite significant, competitors still take this game seriously.

The Rugby World Cup used to give automatic qualification to all teams in the top three of the ongoing tournament to the one that would follow it four years later thus making the third place playoff game important, but this was later scrapped after the 1999 edition of the tournament allowing teams outside the top three to automatically qualify depending on their IRB co-efficient in the rankings.

The 1980 edition was the last UEFA European Football Championship to have a third place match. That was one of the few third place football matches ever to be decided by a penalty shootout, where Czechoslovakia defeated hosts Italy 9-8 on penalties after a goalless draw.

The FIFA World Cup features a third place playoff, usually on the day before the final. It is often there to provide a spectacle as there is often a gap of a few days between the semi-finals and the final. The third place playoff is considered a lower-priority match to organizers, as it is frequently scheduled in one of the smaller stadia; the largest stadium (usually located in the host nation's capital city) is reserved for the final, while the semi-finals occupy the second and third-largest stadia. However, the third place match in the 1994 World Cup did use the Rose Bowl stadium, the same venue that would later host the tournament final, setting a record attendance of 91,500 for a third place playoff in FIFA World Cup history.

The UEFA Nations League will also have a third place playoff, this game will be played on the same day as the final.

The third-place match in the FIFA Women's World Cup has been somewhat more important to the organizers—the 1999, 2003, and 2007 matches were all held in the same stadium as the final. In fact, the 1999 and 2007 third-place matches were both held as the first half of a doubleheader that culminated in the final. The 2011 third-place match returned to the more traditional scheduling of the day before the final in a different stadium. Notably, the 1999 third-place match was the curtain-raiser to the most-attended women's sporting event in history, the 1999 final also held in the Rose Bowl.

The third place match is generally a high-scoring affair, as no men's match has seen fewer than two goals scored since Poland's 1-0 win over Brazil in 1974, while all bronze-medal games since 1994 (except for 1998, 2014 and 2018) have seen four goals or more. For tournament top scorers, the third place match's tendency of attacking football is a great opportunity to win the Golden Shoe, with players such as Salvatore Schillaci (1990), Davor Šuker (1998), and Thomas Müller (2010) getting the goal they needed to take sole possession of the lead.[1] The FIFA Women's World Cup has had only eight editions to date, therefore creating less opportunity for a pattern to form. However, two of the third-place games in that competition have seen fewer than three goals. In 1995, the USA defeated China 2–0. In 1999, the third-place match between Brazil and Norway ended in a scoreless draw and penalty shootout (won by Brazil), as did the final between the USA and China (won by the USA). In 2015, the third place match between Germany and England was the first to go to extra time, and in the second period of extra time, England scored a single penalty kick goal and held on to the lead to upset Germany.

How seriously the competing teams take this match is subject to debate. Certain teams, especially ones which had been expected to reach the final, will rest some of their starters to allow some of their reserve team players to participate in a World Cup game. For instance French team captain Michel Platini did not play in either the 1982 or 1986 third place matches, while German goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt received his only competitive international appearance in a third place playoff,[2][3] and Michel Vorm came on during injury time of the 3–0 third place play-off win against Brazil in Brasília thus ensuring that all 23 Dutch squad members played at the tournament.[4] By contrast, teams that are not expected to get this far usually take this match seriously, as third place can be a historical achievement. In the 1994 World Cup, the Sweden national team branded the game as "the bronze match" and after victory they landed at Arlanda with a fighter escort and were then paraded through the streets of Stockholm to millions live on national TV. Another example of a high-profile third place match was in 1998, when the recently established Croatian football team upset the Netherlands.

If the host nation is involved in the third place match, the team generally uses the match to thank the support of their fans (such as the South Korean football team in 2002, and the German football team in 2006).[1] German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, who had been a reserve to Jens Lehmann during the 2006 tournament, was allowed to retire in the third place playoff by then manager Jürgen Klinsmann. Germany and Portugal fielded strong lineups in that match, after both were narrowly eliminated in their respective semi-finals (Germany and Italy nearly went to a penalty shootout,[5] while Portugal was defeated by the lower-ranked France[6]). For Brazil, the dismal 3–0 loss to the Netherlands in the 2014 third place match, along with the 7-1 semi-final defeat to Germany, led to coach Luiz Felipe Scolari being dismissed.[7][8] For the Dutch, this was their first bronze medal in the FIFA World Cup.[9]

Germany currently holds the most third-place finishes in the (men's) World Cup, with four, their most recent in 2010.[10] The U.S. has the most third-place finishes in the Women's World Cup, with three; they have never finished outside the top three.

The Big3 professional 3-on-3 basketball league features a post-season game for third place; the game is played directly before the league's championship and features the teams who were eliminated in the semifinals.

For most of its history, the Little League World Series has featured either a consolation bracket, or consolation games. Currently, the tournament features a single consolation game between the United States runner-up and the International runner-up. Like the championship, the game allows an American team to compete against an International team. All other games are played within their respective American or International pool of eight teams each, except two exhibition games which match the United States teams and International teams which were doubly eliminated, and winless, in their respective brackets.

Third place games (and consolation games for lower placings) are common in early season college basketball tournaments, as it gives each team an opportunity to play more games before the conference games start in earnest. It also provides the tournament venue with additional games.

Many sports tournaments do not have a third place playoff, mostly due to a lack of interest from the competitors and also from the fans. Two of the most celebrated knockout tournaments — the FA Cup Third-fourth place matches (1970–1974) and the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship (1946–1981) — did feature the third place game for a period of time, but later abandoned it. For most of its years, the NCAA featured consolation games in both regional play and within the Final Four. However, as the field expanded beyond 32 teams, the game lost significance. Eliminating the game also allowed the losing teams to return home rather than remaining in the Final Four city for an additional two days to play a game holding less interest than the championship.

The National Football League had a consolation game, the Playoff Bowl, from 1960 to 1969, which pitted the second-place team in each of the two conferences (based on regular season record from 1960 to 1966) against each other in Miami, Florida. Through the 1966 season, the only scheduled NFL playoff game was the Championship Game (with unscheduled conference tie-breaker games as necessary; only in 1965 during the 1960s). In 1967, the NFL playoff field expanded to four (division champions), and its first round losers went to the Playoff Bowl, increasingly unpopular with the participating players. With interest declining for a third-place game and an eight-team playoff field arriving with the AFL–NFL merger in 1970, the Playoff Bowl was abandoned with little objection.

The Philippine Basketball Association, from its inception, also had third place games preceding its conferences' playoff finals until the end of the 2009–10 season, when it was abrogated.

Third place playoffs are especially controversial when they are used in tournaments that use a Page playoff system since there is only one "semi-final" game in this format. Critics argue that in such a formula, the loser of the semi-final should simply be awarded third place. Proponents of the third place game argue that without it, the importance of the medal round is cheapened since the top two teams heading into the Page playoff would otherwise be "guaranteed" a medal - this argument carries less weight in tournaments where medals are not awarded or where they are considered of relatively minor importance in comparison to winning the tournament.

• Classification match
• Knockout tournament
• Single-elimination tournament