Penalty shootouts in football could be transformed to make them fairer under new plans being looked at by UEFA.
The sport’s European governing body is already trialling a new way for penalties to be taken in decisive shootouts.
Instead of teams alternating spot-kicks, Uefa is considering a new system similar to the tie-break in tennis.
The system is being tried out at the European Under-17 Championship, which began in Croatia on Wednesday.
As it stands, teams take turns in a shootout, with the choice of who goes first decided by a coin toss.
For example, team A goes first, then team B, then team A again.
The new system is called ‘ABBA’ and sees team A followed by team B – before team B goes again. Team A would then get two successive penalties, and so on until there is a winner.
A coin will still be tossed to decide who goes first.
The idea is to stop the team going second having to always, potentially, play catch-up.
