UEFA will not recommend scrapping extra-time in its competitions, after Europe’s top coaches discussed the idea at their annual meeting on Wednesday in Switzerland.
According to sources in the meeting, eight coaches present wanted a drawn match to proceed directly to penalty kicks, with six coaches against the proposal, falling short of the overwhelming majority usually required to ensure a formal recommendation.
Instead there was ‘unanimous support’ for an additional substitute in the game.
Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, UEFA’s coaching ambassador, said he did not like to see players “walking” around the pitch exhausted and that extra-time rarely succeeded in producing a winner.
“Some coaches said it could be direct to penalties, others thought that could be an advantage for the smaller teams who could defend more,” said UEFA’s chief technical officer Ioan Lupescu.
“One thing that is very clear is that these days the players play so many matches and we raised the question whether from their point of view it is still worthwhile having extra-time.”
Ferguson said it was important to consider the “protection” of the game.
“I don’t think we like to see players exhausted in extra-time and when the whistle goes at the end of 90 minutes, I’ve always the feeling it’s going to go to penalty kicks,” he said.
“You saw in the last Champions League final, players walking about… it’s inevitable that it goes to penalty kicks so the question is how we can improve it?”
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