I’m sure it can’t have escaped the attention of most football fans, that the ludicrous bureaucrats at the Football League are contemplating the proposal of scrapping draws in Football League matches – or rather – making drawn games end with a penalty shootout to ensure there is a final winner. An utterly ludicrous idea to further bastardise our beautiful game (well, in concept at least – it hasn’t been too beautiful at the City Ground this season!) for no good reason I can understand.
The details of the proposal are here courtesy of Sky Sports – the scheme could be in place as early as next season for the Championship, League One and League two, thanks to the machinations of Lord Brian Mawhinney. Although he does need to run this by chairmen and chief executives before any final decision is likely to be made, I would hope that a groundswell of opposition to this nonsense prospect from football league teams supporters might put a stop to it.
Effectively, if a game finishes as a draw then the worst you’ll get is the point you would get under the current system – if you go on to win the penalty shootout you would get a bonus point, ultimately ending up with two points for the fixture, whilst the team that loses the shootout gets one. This is certainly better than simply giving a “win” to the shootout winner, and a defeat to the loser – but nonetheless it’s fiddling around with a format that works perfectly well, quite frankly.
I can imagine that the buzz of picking up a bonus point from a lucky draw might be quite enticing, but equally it could go the other way – imagine if we’d played Blackpool, which ended – in many ways – a harsh draw (I say in many ways, because of the dodgy penalty decision – notwithstanding that Blackpool totally outplayed us and probably deserved a win!) but anyway, you concede a dodgy penalty, you lose a victory – and then the other side goes on to get a bonus point because they win the penalty shootout… and let’s face it, with our standard of penalty taking that’s likely to happen more often than not!
So, I would urge people to follow Gareth’s suit – who emailed me with the appropriate links and his own displeasure at the proposal. Get in touch with the Football League to let them know what you think, hopefully you won’t want the game tinkering with in this absurd manner either, but whatever your thoughts it would be valuable to give your feedback to the people making the decision. The contact details for the football league can be found by clicking this link. It might also be worth lobbying Forest since presumably our dear decision makers will have a say in this scheme too – try copying in any emails to enquiries@nottinghamforest.co.uk.
15 March, 2007 at 5:04 pm |
What a load of bollocks, if this gets in, then that day will be when I stop watching and supporting football.
Why don’t these stupid little pen pushers who have nothing better to do, go out and get a proper job instead of making up stupid ideas just to keep themself in a job.
Trouble in this country and society today, we have too many doo gooders wanting to change every bloody thing we do.
Well in my eyes they can all piss off,
Anyway off me soap box now and come on you bloody reds, lets get our act together and put a run together to get out of this shite league.
15 March, 2007 at 5:08 pm |
Just had a thought, you could be shit all season play for draws in the hope at getting a penalty shoot out. You could have 5 brilliant penalty takers but not very good players. Away teams will just go away from home sit back for 90 mins in the hope of getting 2 points. This will make football boring than it currently is to watch,
Instead of playing 90 minutes why don’t we just go straight to penalty shoot outs.
15 March, 2007 at 5:19 pm |
true but we could actually win something this way!
We could get Psycho back and get promoted just because of him being able to smash the ball through the net at the end of every draw. Crossley was one of the finest penalty savers so we could bring him on in the last minute as well.
Vote for penalty shootouts – Europe here we come!
15 March, 2007 at 5:36 pm |
although i am totally against it i bet CC would be pleased as that is his policy shit all season and hope to hang on to get a point
15 March, 2007 at 7:31 pm |
Hmm. So how about 3 points for a win, plus goal difference as points – that should stimulate desire to win! Oh, and let’s have 10 subs to choose from – 5 penalty takers who come on fresh in the 89th minute. Yeah – and bigger goals too. OK, and we can split the game into quarters to allow for more TV revenue from adverts. Hang on – isn’t this just like World Cup USA proposal?
Bugger it, let’s go back to pig’s bladders and a maximum wage.
15 March, 2007 at 8:08 pm |
What a load of rubbish!!
However, it is worth pointing out that apparently this idea came from a supporters questionnaire that was circulated a few months ago………….
16 March, 2007 at 9:58 am |
Were they MK Dons fans?
Nobody asked me about it!
16 March, 2007 at 10:53 am |
Its total CRAP! F*cking bureaucrats………..
I saw the interview with Lord “LaDe Da” Mawhinney on the TV and it was obvious he didnt have a f*cking clue what he was talking about.
If this gets passed its a VERY bad day for football…..!!!
16 March, 2007 at 3:15 pm |
This idea was included within a question in a football questionnaire to supporters I think who had registered on the football league website (myself included). I wasnt one to agree with the peno suggestion but it made a great deal more suggestions such as 4 points for an away win etc and also asked stuff about what are the major concerns – max fixing, racism, players wages, agents fees etc. Also asked what clubs could do you attract people to games more. Play better football for one I thought but these were all random ideas to a small group of people. If they see a large opposition to this they may shy out. After all the FL have been seeing steadly increasing attendances so why should they rock the boat.
But look on the bright side, we’d get far better at penos in the long run and you never know, it may filter up to the national side and they may actually win a major tournament.
It would be better if they do it at half time for naught but pride. Instead of team talks and 15 mins of sitting round doing sod all, they should have a peno shoot out. More entertainment for the fans for sure!
16 March, 2007 at 3:19 pm |
Oh and I guess you’ve seen that we have our long awaited loan signing. Do you think it was the, ehm, Wright one NFFC? I’m eagerly awaiting you take on it as I’ve not really paid much attention to what this guy is like. I just know he’s been places and (noted with a groan) he’s a defender. Still no attacking flair coming in but it would be naive to think that anyone would let any of these types of players go out on loan at this point of the season wouldnt it?