FIFA boss Sepp Blatter has called for penalty shootouts to be scrapped – just a week after England’s Chelsea heroes beat a German team on spotkicks in the Champions League final.
Blatter called shootouts a “tragedy” for the game – and he has called on GERMANY’S Franz Beckenbauer to find alternative. It comes after Chelsea beat Bayern Munich in last Saturday’s Champions League final.
Blatter told the FIFA Congress this morning that football “loses its essence” when matches are settled by penalty kicks.
He added: “Football can be a drama, even a tragedy, when we go to penalty kicks. Football should not go to one to one, because when football goes to penalty kicks, it loses its essence as a team sport.”
Last Saturday, Chelsea beat Bayern Munich in a shootout to win the Champions League after the German side had dominated a game that finished in a 1-1 draw after extra time.
The task force has met several teams but has shown little public interest in scrapping penalty shootouts when English teams have lost. Just two years ago Blatter was backing penalty shootouts. In August 2010 he wanted to do away with extra time and go straight to shootouts after drawn games.
Blatter told German magazine Focus: “If there is no winner at the end of 90 minutes of play, we would proceed directly to penalty kicks.”