Top News

Penalty shootouts often seem like a questionable method to decide high-pressure matches, but could there possibly be an alternative?

After all, who hasn’t watched the raw emotional rollercoaster of a penalty shootout and thought, ‘this is terrible, it really needs changing’?

Surprisingly, there are indeed people who hold that view, believing that the thrilling chaos of deciding a contest through spot kicks from 12 yards might somehow be improper.

But worry not, because yet again, a rather eccentric proposal aiming to ‘fix’ this perceived problem is making the rounds.

This notion tends to resurface from time to time, especially after matches where a penalty shootout feels like an unfair way to settle things between a dominant side and one that just scraped through on fortune.

The concept is simple: hold the penalty shootout before extra time begins—or even before kick-off itself—so that both teams know exactly what is at stake should the match end in a draw.

This idea was most recently revived by Pras, a contributor to The FPL Show and Off The Bench podcast.

The suggested mechanism is that if the match remains level after extra time, the team that had already won the earlier shootout would be declared the winner.

Pras’s version leans in a similar direction, proposing that the shootout should occur before the start of extra time, with the victorious side being awarded half a goal going into the additional 30 minutes.

The idea behind this is to ensure that at every stage of extra time, at least one team has a clear incentive to attack and score.

However, it’s fair to say that there are some glaring flaws in this logic.

For starters, the assumption seems to be that under the current system, most teams approach extra time purely aiming to reach a shootout.

While that does occasionally occur, more often than not, the stronger side typically pushes to win the game during extra time rather than risk leaving it to penalties.

If that same team had already won the pre-determined shootout, they would likely be content to play defensively and protect their advantage—and the same would apply even more strongly if the weaker side had won the shootout.

Those who recall the ‘golden goal’ era will remember that instead of sparking attacking football as intended, it largely made teams fearful of conceding, leading to highly cautious play during those 30 minutes and, ultimately, a preference for shootouts.

If this new proposal were ever implemented, it could very well produce the same unintended consequences.

Most importantly, penalty shootouts are thrilling precisely because of their drama and clear stakes. Over the years, fans have learned to accept the occasional unfair outcome in favour of the sheer entertainment they provide.