FIFA mull World Cup changes

BERLIN: Football’s governing body Fifa is considering scrapping drawn games from the group stages of the World Cup.

The organisation’s chief Sepp Blatter wanted to put an end to defence-minded teams playing to get a draw in the early games of the tournament.

“We’re considering doing away with draws in the first round and ending extra-time,” said Blatter. “If there’s no winner at the end of 90 minutes, we’d proceed to penalties.”

Another possibility would be to revive the “Golden Goal” scenario whereby if a match is drawn, the first team to score a goal would be the winner. This was used in the 1998 competition in France.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2010.