How Were Drawn Games Decided Before The Introduction Of Penalty Shoot-out To Football?

Sometimes in football, it is very necessary to determine the eventual winner of a game that ends in a draw. This does not apply in league matches and group stage matches of tournaments where the sum total of points is the determining factor. However, it applies in knockout matches where one of the teams has to emerge the winner in order to advance to the next stage of the competition.

In modern football, penalty shoot-out is used as a tie-breaker when a game ends in a draw. This method requires players from each team to take penalty kicks and the team that scores the most penalty kicks is declared the winner. It is also required that a player cannot take a penalty kick more than once, except all the eleven players have played and the scores are still level. However, this idea of penalty shoot-out was introduced to professional football in 1970. Before then, several methods were employed in determining the winner of a drawn game.'

1. Extra Time: This is still applicable in modern football. It refers to the additional period of time given to the teams after the game ends in a draw in order to provide an opportunity for either of the teams to score and be declared the winner. 2. Replay: This refers to the repetition or rematch of a game that ends in a draw. A later date is fixed for the game to take place again in order to determine the winner. This was the case in the 1968 European Championship final match between Italy and Yugoslavia. The game was replayed after it first ended in a draw and Italy won 2-0. 3. Drawing of Lots: This was used in major football tournaments when a replay was not possible. It could be by coin toss or any other method of random selection used to determine the winner of a drawn game. This method was applied in the 1968 European Championship semifinal game between Italy and USSR and it turned out in favour of Italy. 4. Corner-kick Counts: This method wasn’t really applied in major football competitions. It was used mainly in charity matches and some other games as far back as the early 1920s in order to avoid replays. If the game ends in a draw, the number of corner kicks awarded to both teams is put into consideration and the team with the higher number gets the advantage.

However, with the introduction of penalty shoot-out, most of these methods of are no longer relevant in modern football. Most football tournaments around the world make use of penalty shootout as a tie-breaker. The very first penalty shootout in the FIFA World Cup happened in the game between West Germany and France in the semifinal of the 1982 world cup tournament and it ended in favour of West Germany. However, some football analysts are not in support of this penalty shootout method, as they claim it relies solely on luck and not brilliance, and that the better team sometimes loses on penalties.