The Return of the Golden Goal

        I awoke this morning to read an article saying that the FIFA president Sepp Blatter has asked two of the governing body’s committees to examine scrapping extra-time at the 2014 World Cup. Blatter also stated that FIFA will be looking into the feasibility of having a penalty shoot-out after 90 minutes or the re-introduction of the wonderful golden goal rule, which brought us the delightful scenes after Oliver Bierhoff's goal against Czech Republic in Euro 96 and Laurent Blanc's goal against Paraguay at France 98.

        Blatter said: "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. To prevent this, we could go directly to a penalty shoot-out at full time, or reintroduce the golden goal rule. We'll see what emerges from the committee meetings."
        Most of that is twaddle and with the other concerns that FIFA and UEFA have about goal line technology and video technology I don't truly think that anything will happen on this matter until those two concerns are taken care of. Which in my opinion is truly a sad situation, it is a concern which hasn't been answered in years, after they decided that replays where not a viable option in international competitions due to scheduling problems, they very quickly moved onto the idea of extra time and penalty shoot-outs, the later which every football fan knows can be a harsh mistress.
       The term golden goal was introduced by FIFA in 1993 along with the rule change because the alternative term, "sudden death", was perceived to have negative connotations. The golden goal was not compulsory, and individual competitions using extra time could choose whether to apply it during extra time. To me the main problem with the was this that a side who was down to 10 men or out matched by their opposition could then still attempt to hold out for another 30 minutes and go for the lottery of penalties.
       I think the ruling for golden goal should have no time limit whatsoever it should be as they say on the greens and commons with jumpers for goalposts 'next goal wins' with these rules matches will encourage free-flowing football.  Opponents of this idea would say this could lead to matches lasting exceedingly long and putting the side that wins in a disadvantage for their next match but I would say that they it would encourage them to score earlier in the match so they are not in a worse position for their next match.
      I am not saying this is the best method of resolving a match which finishes in a draw after 90 minutes when a draw is not allowed, the best method is a replay of the match but that isn't feasible in most cases I think the golden goal rule without a time limit is the way forward.