# How would you replace penalties in soccer/football? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** football-soccer-fifa\ **Created:** [July 6, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855 "2021-07-06T21:52:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/21 "2021-07-07T10:50:18Z")
I’m pretty sure, but who knows really, that I’ve heard the term in football and also in hockey, in plural form. I’ll try and listen for it if I can watch the Cup Final tonight. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/22 "2021-07-07T11:01:11Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I’ll try and listen for it if I can watch the Cup Final tonight. For a moment I wondered what Cup you were referring to… then I figured you must mean Stanley Cup. Two things occurred to me then: 1. I’m not a big hockey fan but I can’t believe I was not even aware that the Stanley Cup finals were going down. 2. Is it normal for them to occur at the same time as the UEFA Euros (every fourth year)? Or is this another COVID thing? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/23 "2021-07-07T11:22:01Z")
I think this is really late for the Stanley Cup finals. In 2019, they finished in early June. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/24 "2021-07-07T13:51:11Z")
The biggest problem in tournament play isn’t penalties, it’s teams playing overly cautious when the score is even and 11 man defense if they get a lead. What is needed is an experimental tournament where each round features a different change in the rules to see which rules give the most interesting matches. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/25 "2021-07-07T13:54:12Z")
I think that’s a problem with the sport in general. Well, that and diving. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/26 "2021-07-07T13:59:28Z")
It’s less of an issue when it’s not “one loss and you’re out”. And the frequency and drama of diving is very regional. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/27 "2021-07-07T14:03:16Z")
I’ve always liked the original MLS penalties. Which was one attacker and goalkeeper, but the attacker was given the ball at 35 yards and 5 seconds in which to score (or miss or have it be saved). I could even see it being used at the end of 90mins instead of 2 periods of extra time. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/28 "2021-07-07T14:18:51Z")
Yeah, that would be a big improvement on the current penalty method – at least you’d see some foot skills and goaltending skills, rather than essentially a coin flip. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/29 "2021-07-07T14:25:17Z")
What about awarding the win to whichever side had the most time of possession at the end of the 30 minute extra period if it’s still tied? That would certainly reduce incentives for teams to play defensively during a tied game. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/30 "2021-07-07T14:28:49Z")
I think that the problem there is that some teams play possession-heavy strategies (like Spain, for example) and some prefer the flash breakout game. If you made that change, then all teams would play a boring keep-away game to run up possession times. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/31 "2021-07-07T14:31:55Z")
What if they still had penalty kicks, but they had to do something like knock bottles off the top of the goal, sort of like a carnival game. At the end of the match, 10 bottles are placed evenly along the top of the goal. It’s still the normal penalty kick scenario, but now the kickers are trying to knock bottles off the top rather than score a goal. The goalie can still block the ball. The goalie would also need to be careful not to knock the ball into the bottles. The team who knocks the most bottles off wins. There would be a bit more skill involved as the kicker would be trying to direct the ball to a relatively small area. The bottles could be as large as necessary so that they could be hit reasonably well. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/32 "2021-07-07T14:34:45Z")
While I would generally love the carnival atmosphere, I think the purists might be a little peeved… ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/33 "2021-07-07T14:37:29Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > What about awarding the win to whichever side had the most time of possession at the end of the 30 minute extra period if it’s still tied? That would certainly reduce incentives for teams to play defensively during a tied game. Possession based soccer can most definitely be defensive. Look at Spain in Euros. Some of the most exciting soccer is played by counter attacking squads. Making everyone possession based is a great recipe for dull soccer. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/34 "2021-07-07T14:45:48Z")
Heck, how about Spain in the 2018 World Cup? I’m already somewhat biased against soccer, but I think everyone agreed that the game against Russia where they passed the ball 1100 times and lost in penalties might have been the most boring game ever seen. It was that Simpsons bit about soccer in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/35 "2021-07-07T14:46:11Z")
Yeah, the season started very late. COVID didn’t help anything. The Canucks missed the playoffs but were still finishing their regular season schedule when the playoffs had already started. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/36 "2021-07-07T14:54:18Z")
I’ll shake the tree with this one. After one overtime, players can use their hands for anything except actually scoring a goal. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/37 "2021-07-07T15:01:21Z")
Do they have to dribble? Or, just run to the goal, drop it, and kick it? If they can use their hands, can we allow checking? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/38 "2021-07-07T15:03:12Z")
I’m guessing the purists wouldn’t like my ideas about paintgun snipers and releasing a dozen small dogs onto the pitch either. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/39 "2021-07-07T15:04:14Z")
Dog lovers probably wouldn’t like it either, given the risk the dog is kicked instead of the ball. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lantern2/32/3010_2.png) [@Lantern2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern2)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855/40 "2021-07-07T15:07:57Z")
A simple idea: have the shoot-out penalties at around twice the distance of a regular in-game penalty to make it less random. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-replace-penalties-in-soccer-football/945855.md?page=3)