The
golden goal is a method used to decide the
winner of games in elimination matches which end in a draw after
the end of regulation time. Golden goal rules allow the team that
scores the first goal during
extra time
to be declared the winner. The game finishes when a golden goal is
scored.
The golden goal is no longer used in FIFA
authorised
games, other than the FIFA
Beach World Cup. The golden goal is used by
NCAA soccer games and by
FIH
sanctioned
field hockey matches. A
related concept is used in
National Rugby League games.
History
The first
recorded use of the golden goal rule was during the final of the
Cromwell Cup, the world's second ever
football competition, at Bramall Lane
, Sheffield
in 1868, although the term
golden goal was never used. The deciding goal was
scored by a newly formed team called
The Wednesday, now known as
Sheffield Wednesday.
Its public origins can be traced to a letter
published in the Times newspaper
in London
on 16 April 1992 .
Use in association football
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. The
first
European Football
Championship played with the rule was in 1996; the first
World Cup played with the rule was in
1998.The first golden goal recorded was in March 1993 by
Australia against
Uruguay in a quarter-final
match at the FIFA World Youth Championships.
Huddersfield Town's Iain Dunn became the first British player to
settle a match in this way - his 107th-minute goal beat
Lincoln City 3-2 in the
AWS on
30
November 1994. The first major tournament
final to be decided by such a goal was the
1996 European Football
Championship, won by
Germany over the
Czech Republic. The
golden goal in this final was scored by
Oliver Bierhoff.Other major international
tournament finals decided by a golden goal include:
The first golden goal in World Cup history took place in
1998, as
Laurent Blanc scored to enable
France to defeat
Paraguay in the Round of 16.
In
2002, three games were
decided by a golden goal -
Senegal over
Sweden and
Korea over
Italy in the last 16, and
Turkey over
Senegal in the
quarter-final.
The golden goal rule was introduced to stimulate offensive flair
and to effectively reduce the number of penalty shootouts. However,
it was widely thought that golden goal rules encouraged teams to
play more defensively to safeguard against a loss. Teams often
placed more emphasis on not conceding a goal rather than scoring a
goal, and many Golden Goal extra time periods remained
scoreless.
In the 2002 season
UEFA introduced a new rule,
the
silver goal, to decide a competitive
match. In extra time the team leading after the first fifteen
minute half would win, but the game would no longer stop the
instant a team scored. Competitions that operated extra time would
be able to decide whether to use the golden goal, the silver goal,
or neither procedure during extra time.
Rules
Football
Two halves of fifteen-minute
extra time
are played. If any team scores a goal during extra time, that team
becomes the winner and the game ends at once. The winning goal is
known as the "golden goal." If there are no goals after both
periods of extra time, a
penalty shootout decides the
game. If the teams are still tied after a penalty shootout then the
game goes to sudden-death penalties, where each team takes one
penalty each, until only one team scores, resulting in that team
winning the game.
Field hockey
International field hockey tournaments such as the
Hockey World Cup,
Champions Trophy and
Summer Olympics
tournament use golden goals to decide the winners of
elimination matches. During these matches, golden goal extra time
of 7½ minutes per half is played and if no golden goals are scored
after both periods of extra time, a
penalty stroke competition decides the
game.
Abolition in football
In
February 2004, after widespread complaints about the impact of the
rule from fans , the IFAB bowed to
pressure and announced that after Euro 2004 in Portugal
, both the
golden goal and silver goal methods would be removed from the
Laws of the Game.
The
2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany
did not
employ the golden goal in the event of a tied match during the
knockout stage, but reverted to the previous rules: In the event of
a tied game after the original 90 minutes, two 15-minute halves of
extra time were played. Then, if a tie remained after the 30
minutes of extra time, the winner was decided by a penalty
shootout.
See also
References
- 2006 World Cup drops golden goal
- FIFA Rules
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