Hands up anyone that enjoys watching extra time when cup and knockout stage games end in a draw after 90 minutes. Anybody? One of football’s oldest institutions is not universally beloved, it’s fair to say, and it would appear as if UEFA are finally getting on the same page.
The governing body has already abolished extra time in its Super Cup game, while reports suggest that UEFA are also plotting to do away with the extra period in knockout stage games of the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League, too. Are they making the right decision? Or should UEFA be more respectful of a rule that had been present in football since the 1800s?
Time Out
There is a demand from elite-level football clubs for the amount of game time they play to be reduced. The fixture list is as hectic as ever, with the expansion of the FIFA Club World Cup – and the desire to embark on lucrative pre-season tours to far-flung corners of the globe – meaning that top-tier players are now barely getting a rest in the summer, leaving many complaining of accumulative fatigue.
Players Unhappy
So much so, Manchester City’s Ballon d’Or winning midfielder, Rodri, has even suggested that players could go on strike. “I think we’re close to that. It’s the general opinion of the players, and if it keeps this way, we’ll have no other option,” the Spaniard said. “I really think it’s something that worries us. We are the guys who suffer.”
There’s precious little that football clubs themselves can do to reduce their fixture list – the more successful you are, the more games you play, so getting rid of extra time from knockout games would offer a modicum of help. According to The Guardian, UEFA is giving ‘serious consideration’ to the idea of scrapping extra time in knockout stage games in their flagship competitions. Those contests would instead proceed directly to a penalty shootout should the teams be level after 90 minutes of action.
Unlikely to Happen Soon
However, reports claim that the change is unlikely to happen any time soon… bizarrely due to current TV rights deals. With no extra time, games would be shorter in run time, so broadcasters would likely want to renegotiate their terms.
Any change would need to be green lit by UEFA’s executive committee; they haven’t ratified any major changes in the governing body’s major competitions since 2021, when the away goals rule was canned. But they did action change for their Super Cup game between the winners of the Champions League and Europa League. Extra time was scrapped for that curtain-raising fixture back in 2023, with the game going straight to penalties instead, so there is some precedent to work with.
CONMEBOL Inspiration
It might solve a problem that is partly of UEFA’s making, given that they expanded the Champions League to 36 teams for the 2024/25 season – meaning that each played at least four more times in the competition – in a Swiss-style overhaul. Should UEFA need inspiration to go ahead with the rule change, they could take a leaf out of CONMEBOL’s book. They have never used extra time in the quarter-finals and semi-finals of their flagship competition, Copa America. Those games have instead gone straight to penalties if tied after 90 minutes.
A Little Extra
Back in the 1800s, when football was in its development phase as a sport, most clubs struggled to finance away game travel. So in domestic cup competitions like the FA Cup, replays were not a particularly popular outcome of drawn games. Instead, extra time and/or penalties was considered the smarter way to separate the teams.
How It All Started
Extra time has been used in football since the nineteenth century, although the first time it was deployed in a major contest came in the 1875 FA Cup final between those two powerhouses of contemporary football… Old Etonians and the Royal Engineers. And it was all born out of a tricky situation from the inaugural edition of the FA Cup in 1871/72. Queen’s Park, from Glasgow, competed in that year’s competition, battling through to the semi-finals where they would meet Wanderers, a team based in London’s Leytonstone.
The game ended 0-0, with the two teams unsure of how to proceed. The replay would have been played in London again, but Queen’s Park declared that they didn’t want to have to have to make the expensive journey down from Scotland again. A period of extra time on the original date would have solved matters, but instead it was decreed that a replay should be played. Queen’s Park refused to turn up, so Wanderers were handed a walkover straight through to the final.
Five years after their easy route to the final, Wanderers were the beneficiaries of the new-fangled period of extra time. In the 1877 FA Cup final, they were locked at 1-1 with Oxford University. Extra time, two halves of 15 minutes, would be played… with the Londoners prevailing 2-1 thanks to a William Lindsay goal in the 97th minute.
1900s Rule Change
By the early 1900s, the rules were changed again so that the FA Cup final could have up to two replays if the games kept being drawn, with extra time only used if the second replay also ended in stalemate. However, it didn’t take too long before the Football Association realised that two replays for a final was nonsensical, so extra time was instituted at the end of the final proper if required.
International Football
International football would soon follow suit. Extra time was introduced for the first time at the Olympic Games in 1920, with an epic quarter-final between the Netherlands and Sweden decided by the additional period – after drawing 4-4 after 90 minutes, Jan de Natris would step up as the Dutch hero with the winning goal.
With extra time now enshrined in international football law, it would also be introduced at the World Cup. It wasn’t needed at the inaugural edition in 1930, but four years later a pair of close contests were settled via extra time: Austria’s 3-2 win over France in the last 16 (the game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes), as well as the curious scenario in which Italy and Spain’s quarter-final was level at full time and after extra time too, so they were forced to play a replay the very next day.
