He's like a pantomime villain.

England should put Joey Barton on their FIFA delegation in retaliation.

What's a cu*t? What did the n ever do to you?

I want to be a sports administrator

FIFA or IOC preferably, but any wealthy sport is fine.

I could not give a stuff.

He is still clearly a man in great pain after Chelsea's gutsy win against the odds.
Jolly Good

I like penalties. An honest way to settle a game. What does he propose instead? Biggest bung, wins?

It is a diversion since the IOC released a report saying that only a complete fucking idiot would sanction a sports tournament in Qatar in the summer. Or any other time in fact.

He's a cunt.

and he is probably a noisy eater as well

Sepp Blatter is just a pompous twat full of a sense of self-importance (to the extent that he insists on being addressed as 'Mr President' by everyone, not just his minions at FIFA). Anything that can be done to deflate him is A GOOD THING.

Nothing wrong with penalties to settle a game, perhaps his problem is that the right team doesn't always win.

I liked the system used in the USA many years ago. The ball was placed on the 35 yard line (used for offside over there). One of the TJs, with an air horn, would station himself in the corner with his back to the play. The goalkeeper would start on his line and the opponent would be by the ball. When the referee blew his whistle, the TJ would start his stop watch. After 5 seconds he would blow the air horn. If the ball had been legally put into the net by then, it was a goal. The attacker could dribble as far as he wanted and shoot when he wanted, the goalkeeper could come off his line.

Much more like real soccer. PKs are articifial.

OB, the US got lambasted for the idea. Its was hated by traditionalist. Stick to PK's. Artifical or not, there are very few sports that have a a much pressure and tension to end a game. If not PK's then 5 a side half field comp, first one to 5 wins.

He's planning the next one at the bottom of the ocean and the one after that is just going to be metaphysical.

They should have judges, like in boxing.

I havent got a problem with them changing penalties to something else - but Blatter wasnt so concerned prior to the CL final.

There is no better alternative to penalties - best of a bad bunch.
Only thing you could do is force teams to play with less men in extra time (9?) - then they would probably take off attackers and play for pens anyway. Golden goal was scrapped.

Penalties are gut wrenching for the losing side but they had 120 minutes to settle the match in their favour so Im not sure they deserve too much sympathy.

Penalties are ace. My memories of international football would be poorer without them.

Was gonna say, only thing I can remember about the WC and Euros is the penalty shootoffs!

Make the teams take off 2 players each every 10 minutes while the scores are still level: 9, 7, 5, 3. Goal would eventually come.

I always thought that if after extra time is played it is still level the following happens.

10 minutes: 9 aside, if still level:-
10 minutes: 7 aside, if still level:-
10 minute "halves" at 5 aside until there is a winner.

It would be class seeing the managers decide who they are going to take off and watching 5 on 5 on the full pitch.

Paper, rock, scissors; best of 3.

Done.

Penalty shoot outs are fantastic - that drama at the Alliaz stadium was unbeatable - fortunately the germans wernt

In fairness you wouldn't have said that if Munich had won.

I know, and am in fact a recent convert as after us getting beat in exactly the same circumstances by Man Utd 4 years ago I was dreading them

Great way to decide a match tho - can you imagine the pressure the players are under!

"Joey, you're not allowed to do rock in his face"

Penalty shoot-outs are the only part of a soccer game that's really worth watching.

Watching overpaid ponces crumbling under the pressure as they contemplate carrying the shame of missing for the remainder of their lives - now that's entertainment!

Its actually getting haredr to score from the penalty spot

Take the Champions League final shoot out

Two massive goalies - Cech for instance guessed the right side every time and almost saved every kick!

Interestingly enough a few players refused to be in the first 5 penalty takers, Robben was one

Always been case. Some players fancy them, others don't feel up to it. I remember Paul Ince didnt fancy taking one in the Euro 96 semi when he probably should have instead of Southgate.
He missed v Argentina in 98 so oh well.

Some good strikers refuse to take them, we had a guy at Chelsea who said it would do his confidence in if he missed a penalty so didnt take them!

Another striker Kerry Dixon would fight anyone who dared to try and take one instead of him and he just smashed the thing as hard as he could - no nerves

It be fucking hilarious if it was down to the two goalies and neither could score

Kerry Dixon, thats a blast from the past, had loads swapsies of him in Panini Mexico 86 sticker collection!

Out and out power player - he was my hero as a wee boy

I think Blatter has got this all wrong - there's nothing wrong with the penalty shoot outs - it's all the crap in the couple of hours before hand that ought to be scrapped.

Why? What was wrong with it (apart from it being devised in eth USA)? Curiously, I am usually regarded as a traditionalist. And very often people are only too happy to decry traditionalists.That makes my point that shoot outs have little to do with basic soccer skills.

But I don't bother to watch soccer these days anyway. I did catch part of the FA Cup Final because my English grandson supports Chelsea. (My American grandson supports Liverpool - tough times.)

Nonsense - it encapsulates all the mental skills needed with quite a few of the technical ones too.

And its a great testof goalkeepers

Cech didn't guess... He studied every penalty any of the Bayern squad had taken in the last 5 years, including during other penalty shootouts. He put in hours and hours of work and said he pretty much knew which way each of the Bayern would go with the pen. He studied the angle of their run ups as well to help him predict what type of strike it would be. It could be Bullshit but he did get them all correct.

OB, your idea is flawed because what happens when the keeper fouls the attacker? Retake? Keeper sent off? Penalty?


Also there would be controversy over whether the goal was scored in the alloted 5 seconds.

Your idea while noble in principle actually causes another set of problems.

Is that like what you can do in 2 player Fifa games while the match is loading?