Why Sepp Blatter is Wrong to Question the Penalty Shootout

The year is 1968. Competing in their first ever Olympic Games, Israel have held the comparative might of Bulgaria to a 1-1 draw, after scoring a last minute equaliser. As this quarter final drew to a close, the momentum was very much with the underdogs, and the prospect of a medal was starting to look very real.

But that’s when the football stopped. At the 90 minute mark, the names of both teams were placed into a bowl. The name ‘Bulgaria’ was drawn. Boom. Bulgaria go through. See ya Israel, better luck next time.

So it came to be that pensioner Yosef Dagan first proposed the idea of a penalty shootout to FIFA. Like many others, he couldn’t believe his team had been eliminated in such a random way. He wanted a fairer way to resolve such matches.

Dagan’s voice was heard, and the penalty shootout was adopted in 1970. It has to date provided the nerve-shredding conclusion to some truly thrilling matches (2005 Champions League), as well as some utterly dreadful ones (1994 World Cup final). But the beauty of the shootout is that, while being largely unpredictable, it rewards the team that can best work a psychological edge, keep its nerve and, crucially, show the sharpest shooting from twelve yards. On the coaching and playing side, there is a huge amount of skill involved.

The penalty shootout is not, as some would call it, a lottery. The better players tend to prevail, which is why England lose so many. Since the dawn of the game, the victor is the one that takes its chances, and you can’t say much fairer than that. That is what penalties are all about.

Chelsea deserved to win the Champions League last week for precisely this reason. The shootout was simply the manifestation of the mindsets that had set in during the match. Bayern no longer believed they could win, whereas Chelsea believed they could.

In much the same way, it was Zambia’s firm belief in their destiny that saw them prevail in their glorious Africa Cup of Nations triumph. It’s never been a nice way to lose, but you can’t deny that penalties separate the weak from the strong, those prepared to win at all costs versus those who shrink in the face of such pressure. Isn’t that what football has always been about?

This is why, when Sepp Blatter says that the penalty shootout is not in keeping with the spirit of the game, he is so very, very wrong. If nothing else, there is no better alternative way to settle a match. Referring to previous examples, there are some football matches that could be played forever, without finding a winner, and the idea of replays cheats those fans that came to the initial final expecting to see a result.

Granted, if you are able to hit the crossbar from the halfway line, or recite the closing act of Othello, in such a high-pressure situation, you probably deserve the trophy. But the team in the better mindset would still find a way through, just in more ludicrous circumstances.

Yosef Dagan couldn’t stand to see all of his team’s hard work undone by a decision totally beyond their control. FIFA will doubtless spend millions on research, looking for a new and exciting way to mess with a perfect system, only to prove him right all over again.