New ideas: Fifa president Sepp Blatter wants to encourage teams to play free-flowing football. Pic: ©SNS Group
Sepp Blatter has raised the possibility of scrapping extra-time at major tournaments, in a bid to encourage teams to play to win. The Fifa president says he will raise the issue at forthcoming meetings of the governing body’s Football and Technical committees, following unhappiness at defensive-mindedness at the recent World Cup.
The often outspoken Blatter is keen for the game’s decision makers to consider new proposals to encourage attacking play in decisive matches, with the possibility of jumping straight to a penalty shootout one of his proposals.
Blatter, who is seeking a fourth term in office as Fifa president when elections are held next year, is also giving consideration to reintroducing the Golden Goal rule, which he replaced with Silver Goal in 2002 before both were abolished two years later.
“We have to try to find a way to encourage free-flowing football in tournaments like the World Cup, with teams playing to win,” Blatter told fifa.com. “We plan to take the opportunity to look at the concept of extra time as well.
“Often we see teams set themselves up even more defensively in extra time, in an attempt to avoid conceding a goal at all costs.
“To prevent this, we could go directly to a penalty shoot-out at full time, or reintroduce the golden goal rule. We’ll see what emerges from the Committee meetings.”
The Golden Goal rule, the effect of which was first seen at Euro 1996 when Germany’s Oliver Bierhoff scored in the final against Czech Republic, served as a tiebreaker by ensuring the first team to score within the 30 minutes of extra-time automatically won the match.
Its replacement, Silver Goal, further encouraged attacking play beyond 90 minutes. Under the rule, any team which led at the break in proceedings after 15 minutes of extra time were awarded the tie. Therefore, if one team scored within extra time, the opposition knew they had limited time to salvage the match.
Three knockout games at the 2010 World Cup went to extra-time, with Paraguay’s dire 0-0 draw with Japan in particular serving as an argument in favour of Blatter’s attacking football plan.
Together with the knockout rounds, the group stages of the 2010 World Cup also came in for criticism during the opening weeks. In particular, the first round of games saw a number of matches where teams set out their stalls intent on doing everything not to lose, rather than trying to take three points.
“Football has become such a strategic game, with teams moving as a unit,” said Blatter. “It can be an impressive sight. Gone are the days of simple tactics where you attacked then defended.
“But in the first few matches of the group stage in South Africa, we witnessed some teams that went out to avoid defeat, that were playing for a draw from the outset.”
WORLD CUP HALL OF DEFENSIVE SHAME
- Video: Paraguay 0-0 Japan (Paraguay win 5-3 on penalties)
- Video: Ivory Coast 0-0 Portugal
- Video: Italy 1-1 Paraguay
