Football’s lawmakers have been asked to trial staging penalty shoot-outs at both ends of the pitch.
David Dein, the former vice-chairman of Arsenal and the Football Association, is lobbying the International Football Association Board (IFAB) after witnessing the “triple whammy” which befell Coventry in last season’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United at Wembley.
Coventry had just had a goal disallowed in the last minute of extra-time, which would have capped an incredible comeback, when two spins of a coin meant the penalties would be taken at the Manchester United end and the Premier League side were given the option to go first.
He hopes IFAB will discuss it at future meetings, and says the Dutch football federation (KNVB) has volunteered to trial it in its national cup competition.
The first IFAB meeting of this season’s cycle takes place on Tuesday, when its football and technical advisory panels convene.
The genesis of the concept for Dein dates back to 2000, when Arsenal played Galatasaray in the UEFA Cup final at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen.
Arsenal had to take their kicks in front of 20,000 vociferous and hostile Galatasaray fans, and lost 4-1 that night.
Dein has gathered evidence that taking kicks at both ends has strong support among players and fans.
Sixty-nine per cent of players favoured taking kicks in front of their own supporters, while only three per cent favoured taking them in front of opposition fans, according to a survey by world players’ union FIFPRO.
Meanwhile, feedback gathered by the Football Supporters’ Association found a minimum of 74 per cent supported the idea, and a maximum of three per cent opposed it.
“I hope it will be discussed, and I am going to push it as much as I can,” Dein told the PA news agency.
“The campaign is as much about fairness as it is to give fans the opportunity to encourage their players, and not be disadvantaged with an inferior view of proceedings going on at the other end of the pitch.”
Dein’s plan does not envisage the referee racing from one end of the field to the other. He points out there are five officials – the referee, two assistants, the fourth official and the reserve referee – available to administer the penalties at all major finals.
Dein will also push again for more accurate measurement of time lost – not time wasted.
He believes FIFA’s bold initiative for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar where referees were instructed to more accurately measure time lost to goal celebrations, VAR checks, injuries, substitutions and penalties was refreshing and an acknowledgement of the inaccuracies around timekeeping. However he still believes there is some way to go.
His recommendation is that timekeeping be taken away from referees – something he has found support for among officials, as they are the busiest people on the pitch – and that all time lost is logged on a clock, or that a 60-minute clock, with two halves of 30 minutes of ‘real time’ should be introduced, while still protecting the concept of a 90-minute game. He does not see why fans in the stadium should have an inferior experience to those watching the game on television.
Analysis commissioned by Dein found there were nine minutes and 22 seconds worth of stoppages in the second half of a Premier League game between Arsenal and Manchester City last season, but only five minutes were added on at the end of the half.
Dein said: “America put a man on the moon in 1969, and we still don’t know how long a football match lasts.”