Europe's top coaches pondered the idea of abolishing
extra-time after drawn matches in European competition and going straight to
penalties at their
annual meeting on Wednesday.
Former
Manchester United manager 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?"
South
America's equivalent of the Champions League, the Libertadores Cup, does not
use extra-time in drawn matches.
Coaches
were also given a tactical summary of Euro 2016.
Only 31
percent of games at the tournament were won by teams who had more possession of
the ball, while 11 out of 15 knockout matches were won by the team with less
possession.
There
was a drop in goals from counter-attacks, 30 percent came from set pieces and
18 percent were scored by substitutes, UEFA said.
Forty-two percent of goals in open play came from
crosses and pullbacks.
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