FIFA Needs To Change Its Rules (2006-07-14)
Penalty shootout is the worst possible way to decide on a winner in a football match, especially one as critical as a World Cup Final. You mean people waited four years to see a team win the trophy by spot-kicks? Penalty shoot-out does not reflect the true capability and coordination of a football team nor the skill of its players.
If FIFA is too recalcitrant to change the rules for determining a
winner in all football matches, it should at least consider changing
the rules for the Final. The penalty shootout should be scrapped and
players should keep playing until a deciding goal is scored.
Tennis players do that, why not footballers?
Too harsh for the players, you say? Fine, then stick with the
extra time to the present 30 minutes; but if the score is still
deadlocked, the teams should come back on another day to replay the
match. Third-place match should be scrapped to make room for the
potential replay of a deadlocked Final. Afterall, third place is
meaningless in any players' book. It is either the Cup or nothing.
Football matches should
also adopt the basketball games' 6-fouls-and-a-free-throw rule.
That is: when a team commits a certain number of fouls --say for
example 3 in this case-- during a match, the opponent
team will
automatically be awarded a spot-kick. I bet teams will try much
harder to play fair under this rule and we will see fewer ruthless
tackles on the pitch.
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