Can penalty shoot-outs be improved?

Perhaps the most nerve-shredding component in competitive football, the penalty shootout. One vs one, shooter vs keeper. It's a simple and straight forward task, score the goal, win the game, miss and the opposition can win.

But surely there is a fairer way to divide the result of a game? Seb Stafford-Bloor explores the alternatives, Henry Cooke illustrates.

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#Penalties

[McSwirley]

managers racing from one end of the pitch to the other seems ideal to me

[asparagusbrown]

I love the penalty shootout. It's not "fair" in the best possible way - it's a psychological test that resonates with invested fans, and it's also a rare opportunity for goalkeepers to take the spotlight

[kingseirios]

I don't think there are any better alternatives to replace PSO. yes it takes a great deal of mental strength and also sometimes luck, but that's what make PSO perfect for football. With this, even underdogs like russia, croatia and morocco could upset bigger teams

The caveat is how to prevent abuses and condemnations towards football players who fail at PSO, especially online abuses

[danielmilbourne]

Penalty shoot outs are one of the few things that non football fans would watch and then totally get the drama. Beautifully incorporates the glory and heartbreak of football.

[nickhamblin]

For all its flaws, penalty shootouts' positives, as described in the video, probably make it the best option, though the MLS style run-up is a nice variant. Maybe one little tweak I would suggest would be to have it be best of 7, rather than best of 5, to slightly lessen the impact of missed penalties on individuals & place more emphasis on the team as a whole.

[ernievzla]

No... penalties are exactly what their name indicates

PENALIZING both teams' inability to win the game in 120 min!!

It's supposed to be grueling and suffer... it's part of the drama of the game

Also it's very fair and clear... the ball either goes in or not... no room for misinterpretation from bad referees

[julianquevedo]

Should be mentioned how exciting and nerve wracking penalty shoot-outs are. It's my mum's favorite moment of football, and I guess it's the same for other people who aren't big football fans but still watch worldcups and other major tournaments.

[smanslam]

Even without being in a FIFA committee 😁, I've discussed this with my friends before, and it's really hard to think of a better alternative to penalty shoot-out in football. And quite frankly, it's the favourite part for some people who don't really watch football. The tension and expectation can be beautiful to watch if you are a neutral.

[martinw]

this is the first time i've heard of ADG and i liked it, but then you mentioned how shootouts are free from referee bias and i immediately thought of how controversial tackles could be in ADG.

[John_Smith_]

I believe there is a statistical advantage in going first on penalty shootouts, so a good way of tweaking them without changing the formula too much would be to just swap the order of the teams between shots, to make it fairer.

[natsudama]

Right on time to see this after spain was knocked out after failing every penalty shoot out
Clearly the people that run the channel have a time machine and know what will happen in the next games

[AF-gdfh]

I want to watch a match with the one player removal rule just once.

[EvilFinian]

Another alternative is doing the penalty kicks at the end of full time (before extra time starts) And the winner of the PSO is declared the winner if extra time ends in a draw. This takes away from the worst of the PSO while retaining the best parts. It also decreases the tactic of smaller teams playing just for the draw. It also allows the team that lost the PSO to attempt to win the game in extra time. And takes the pressure off the individuals taking the penalty.

[ConorLennon]

My only suggestion is that there should be more penalties, perhaps ten. Part of the current issue is that players who ‘step up’ are then vilified for missing. If every outfield player was expected to take one, and the manager determined the order, players would have less pressure on them. Missing one penalty out of ten is then no big deal.

[derkaiser]

As a football fan, penalties are one of my favorite things about the game. It is harsh when it happens to your team but I think it is just crazy to watch. It just ends the game. It is harsh but intense and brings all of the emotions out.

[aditimin]

I’ve seen people saying penalties in regulation are also problematic as a single, sometimes unintentional or inconsequential, moment can define the result of a game by being punished with a roughly 75% chance of a goal. I think this problem and the one with penalty shootouts can be solved by simply moving the ball back. By lowering the chance of scoring, it is isn’t as big of a punishment for something potentially irrelevant, and lowers the expectations for takers in a shootout, decreasing the pressure and amount of abuse players may get from missing

[DDWyss]

I like the ADG idea. One other idea I have as an attempt to minimize penalty shootouts in tournament play, is one I recently thought of when reflecting on Croatia making it to the 2022 semi-final without having more than 1 non-penalty shootout win. The idea is that during the tournament, for every penalty shootout a team participates in, they accrue one "miss" in subsequent shootouts. So for a team in a second shootout, they begin with a "miss" on the penalty score sheet, for a third shootout, they begin with 2, and so on. While teams can still win a penalty shootout while beginning with 1 or more misses, it clearly grants an advantage to teams who haven't had previous shootouts. The idea is to discourage teams from grinding games down to a tie in hopes of beating what might be a better opponent in a penalty shootout. So it doesn't get rid of the shootout, but it offers some incentive for teams to be more aggressive in winning a game before it comes to a shootout.

[kdburner]

I’m all for people giving their opinions… but some of the suggestions I’ve read so far are comical, they almost sound like training drills i would’ve done in juniors😂😂

[anuragchowdhury]

Tifo putting Kane on thumbnail: I am somewhat of a time-traveller myself.

[jonnyrubs]

My idea is to play the shootout before the period of extra time.

Say Italy play Brazil, and Brazil win the shootout held immediately after the 90 minutes. You then go into extra time knowing that if both teams are still level at the end, the match is awarded to Brazil.

If Italy managed to get a goal in ET, then they win instead.

Sort of makes the shootout result like a half goal.

This would mean that rather than the game being decided entirely by spot kicks, the two teams would at least be able to play some football to determine a result.