FIFA is to consider abolishing extra time at the World Cup and going straight to penalties if knockout matches are drawn, the federation’s president Sepp Blatter said yesterday.
Blatter 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 in South Africa, we witnessed some teams that went out to avoid defeat, that were playing for a draw from the outset,” he told FIFA’s Web site. “This is a topic that I would like to discuss at upcoming football and technical committee 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,” he said. “To prevent this, we could go directly to a penalty shootout at full time or reintroduce the golden goal rule. We’ll see what emerges from the Committee meetings.”
Blatter’s remarks differ from an interview he gave to the German magazine Focus last month, when he was quoted as saying FIFA were considering penalty shootouts to provide a winner when drawn matches ended goalless.
Separately, FIFA’s World Cup inspectors have had breakfast at the White House, meeting with aides to US President Barack Obama.
The six-man delegation that is assessing the US bid for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup met on Wednesday with US Secretary for Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, an assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement.
FIFA’s group was scheduled to visit Miami later on Wednesday before completing its five-city US tour yesterday in Texas.
FIFA’s 24-man executive committee votes on Dec. 2 on the 2018 and 2022 hosts.
Europe is likely to stage the 2018 tournament, with England, Russia, Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands competing against the US. Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea are only bidding for 2022.
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