?The object of the game is to score by maneuvering the ball into the opposing goal.?

Well you certainly cannot accuse FIFA?s President, yes good old Sepp Blatter, of loosing his touch with age. The man with a million ideas has delivered yet again. He wants to scrap the penalty shootout by the World Cup in 2010 due to be held in South Africa. The tournament in Germany was the second in four to have been settled from 12 yards along with two of the last four Champions League finals and Mr Blatter it would seem has lost patience with this most unsatisfactory of methods to decide a competition.

He has given the boffins four years then to settle a dispute which has been raging since time memorial and has seen many innovations developed as a solution, from tossing a coin to replaying the game, drawing lots to the Golden Goal. All have been tried and all ultimately have been unsucessful.

It cannot be denied that the penalty shootout is unfair, the winner of course not always the team who performed better throughout the game yet its high profile and subsiquent scapegoating by FIFA masks a far greater problem creeping into the game: a reducing number of goals.

At State of the Game we love some statistics so after making such a statement let me provide a few to back it up.

The inaugrial World Cup held in 1930 saw an impressive 70 goals from 18 games. That is 3.88 goals per game average.

In 1966, 89 goals were scored from 32 games giving a healthy average of 2.78 goals per game.

1994 in the USA and the first final to be settled on penalties was played between Brazil and Italy. It was also the best attended tournament in history and the average crowd of nearly 69,000 witnessed 141 goals in 52 matches averaging 2.71.

In France 1998, 171 goals were scored over 64 matches at an average of 2.67 goals per game.

The first tournament of the 21st Century and co hosts South Korea and Japan can boast 161 goals in 64 matches giving an average of 2.52.

Finally in Germany over the 64 matches a total of 147 goals were scored at an average of 2.3 goals per game.

A very worrying trend emerges here and incase you thought it relates only to the international arena, in the inagurage season of the Premiership the goals/game average stood at 3. Last year the average had dropped to 2.5 and so far this season it stands at 2.19. Perhaps one of Sepp Blatter?s most ridiculed ideas of increasing the size of the goals was not so crazy after all.

These are only statistics of course but let me refer to the quote heading this article as a reminder of what football essentially is all about, something a Mr Holger Osieck, head of FIFA?s Technical Study Group (TSG), would do well to remember.

The TSG have been reporting on the identifying trends within international football over the last 40 years. The aim (and I quote from FIFA.com here) is to continue the development of the world?s best loved sport. Their assessment of the reduction of the goals in Germany is an array complements for compact defensive systems used by virtually every team and lavish praise for the high standard of goalkeeping featuring excellent reations and an impressive command of the box.

Of the attacking play in a World Cup that saw one of its finest goals in a sublime move of quick and precise Argentinan passing the TSG observe that all teams mearly tried to exploit space on the wings or tried to create confusion in opposing defences. It is also worth mentioning that the TSG have realised it is becoming increasingly more difficult to score directly from a free kick as goalkeepers are better prepared and form their walls according to the style of the free kick taker. In consequence there becomes little deterrent to a defender considering committing a foul in order to break up a dangerous attack.

So the continued development of the worlds most loved sport in the eyes of FIFA then is towards the 0-0 draw after which we have whatever solution has been devised to the penalty problem. It would also appear that this attitude is not only restricted to the sports top governing body following the hysteria created by Germany?s 13-0 mauling of little San Marino. Where the media should perhaps have heaped praise on a ruthless German performance which continued to score goals even after they passed 5 (England take note here), instead it was San Marino who have brought the game into disripute for conceeding so many. We also hear team managers refering to ?winning ugly? and prep their team towards the 1-0 result playing defensive 451 formations. The days of 325 have long gone it would seem.

Perhaps a reassessment of the worlds most loved sport is required:

?The object of the game is to prevent the opposing team from maneuvering the ball into your goal.?

There is no question that the higher the stakes the greater the temptation for teams to play defensively. Looking back at the goal to game ratios I have already mentioned that in this season it stands at 2.19 in the Premiership but this increases as you move down the leagues standing at 2.46 in the Championship, 2.51 in League One and 2.63 in League Two.

The Premiership though has a far greater profile than any other league in the world and if the number of goals scored continues to decrease then the days are numbered for youths playing in the park, jumpers for goal posts. They won?t know what goal posts are for.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 10:00 am and is filed under General Football Articles. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.