Football: FIFA chief wants shoot-out alternative

Football is a team game but when it goes to one against one, football loses its essence.

BUDAPEST: Fifa President Sepp Blatter has called on Germany’s World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer and his panel of experts to come up with an alternative to penalty shoot-outs to settle drawn matches. “Football can be a tragedy when you go to penalty kicks,” said Blatter. “Football is a team game when it goes to one against one football loses its essence. Perhaps Beckenbauer, with his Football 2014 group, can show us a solution, perhaps not today but in the future.” Beckenbauer, an honorary president at Bayern Munich, had said Chelsea were deserving Champions League winners in the wake of their shootout victory over his former club at the Allianz Arena.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2012.