Future World Cup Finals Should Not Be Decided By Penalties
Sepp Blatter, the head of world football’s governing body FIFA, believes future World Cup finals should not be decided by penalties and said changes could be in place for the showpiece tournament in South Africa in four years. At a Swiss Chamber of Commerce event in Zurich Blatter told Reuters:
We have four years or so, so I think we have time. Maybe to replay the match if it’s the final, you can’t do that through the tournament because of lack of time. Maybe to take players away and play golden goal. When it comes to the World Cup final it is passion, and when it goes to extra time it is a drama. But when it comes to penalty kicks it is a tragedy. Football is a team sport and penalties is not a team, it is the individual.
The first penalty shootout in the World Cup history was won by West Germany, beating France in the 1982 semi-final.
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nuttm3gs said,
September 27, 2006 @ 10:54 pm
I don’t think that the World Cup Finals should be decided by penalty kicks. Instead, players should be taken off the field one after another every five minutes or so and it should be golden goal. Many World Cup only soccer fans hate penalty kicks and penalty kicks take away fans from the game.
Miha said,
September 28, 2006 @ 2:15 pm
That’s a great idea to take off one player every five minutes. It would be very interesting to watch the game with only 6 on the field. :-)