FIFA wants to change the rules on penalty shoot-outs for the knockout rounds at this World Cup to make it fairer. In an incredible and unprecedented move, the governing body wants to change the rules mid-tournament so that a team either chooses to take the first spot kick or takes the penalties in front of their own fans.
The Times is reporting that FIFA officials have held discussions with the International FA Board (IFAB), football’s law-making body, about bringing in a change for this tournament despite it already being underway. IFAB must make a decision on if the changes are to be introduced and used throughout the tournament before the first knockout match on Sunday night. The current laws of the game state that there are two coin tosses at a penalty shoot-out. The first is to decide who takes the first kick and then another to choose the end.
However, FIFA now wants to change the law so there is only one coin toss, with the winner having the first choice and the loser the second. They believe the move would be a fairer way to organise shoot-outs rather than handing two advantages to one team.
France won the toss and kicked first in the final of the 2022 World Cup, but Argentina triumphed in the shoot-out at the end, where the majority of fans were situated. While Arsenal lost both tosses in their recent Champions League final penalty shoot-out defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
Back in 2023, former Arsenal chairman David Dein unveiled plans to have penalty shootouts taken at both ends. Dein, who formerly sat on the FIFA and UEFA competitions committees, believed it was ‘unfair’ for players to take their spot kicks in front of opposition supporters.
“The more I watched shootouts, the more I felt it was unfair on the team who have to take their kicks in front of the opposing fans,” he said in his book Calling the Shots: How to Win in Football and Life by David Dein.
Before he added: “I’m not asking the referee to go up and down. There’s the referee, the fourth official, and two assistants and in major finals, an assistant referee.
“It’s not rocket science having two officiating at either end and one in the centre circle. Invariably there are 32 cameras at a major final, so the coverage will be the same.
“My plan is so simple I don’t understand why it’s never been done. I keep hearing the word ‘tradition’ and, ‘it’s always been done like this.’
“Well, 100 years ago buses were drawn by horses and that was ‘tradition.’ This is progress.”