FIFA to consider axing extra time at WC

BERNE: Fifa will consider abolishing extra time at the World Cups and going straight to penalties if knockout matches are drawn, announced the federation’s President Sepp Blatter.

He also said that Fifa would look at ways of encouraging teams to play a more attacking game after a flurry of low-scoring contests in the early stages of this year’s World Cup in South Africa.

“In the first few matches of the group stage, we witnessed some teams that went out to avoid defeat, that were playing for a draw from the outset,” said Blatter. “This is a topic that I’d like to discuss at the upcoming meetings. We have to try to find a way to encourage free-flowing football in tournaments like the World Cup, with teams playing to win.

“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 shootout at full time, or reintroduce the golden goal rule.”

Blatter’s remarks differ from an interview he gave to the German magazine Focus last month, when he was quoted as saying that Fifa was considering penalty shootouts to give a winner when drawn matches ended goalless.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2010.