UEFA scraps away goals rule in all club competitions

In what comes as a significant development for all UEFA-based club competitions, the vital away goals rule will not be in effect hereon, starting 2021-22. The Union of European Football Associations announced the decision for the same on Thursday, while the decision would be in effect for matches across genders, including qualifiers.

The Rule
The away goals rule had been in effect since 1965 to give a distinct advantage to the away teams and make the matches even more competitive. In case the away goals failed to separate both sides, the games went into extra time, where the rule again came into effect, failing which a penalty shootout decided the winner.

UEFA's take
“The away goals rule was applied to determine the winner of a two-legged knockout tie in cases where the two teams had scored the same number of goals on aggregate over the two matches. In such cases, the team which had scored the higher number of goals away from home was considered the winner of the tie and qualified for the next round of the competition. If the two teams had scored the same number of goals at home and away at the end of normal playing time in the second leg, extra time was played, followed by kicks from the penalty mark if no goal was scored,” said UEFA in a statement.

“With the decision to remove this rule, ties in which the two teams score the same number of goals over the two legs would be not decided on the number of goals scored away, but two 15-minute periods of extra time are played at the end of the second leg and in case the teams score the same number of goals or no goals during this extra time, kicks from the penalty mark would determine the team which qualifies to the next stage of the competition,” it added.

“Since away goals would no longer be given additional weight to decide a tie, they would also be removed from the criteria used to determine the rankings when two or more teams are equal on points in the group stage, i.e. the criteria applied to matches played by the teams in question. They would not be removed from the additional criteria applied to all group matches if the teams remain equal (higher number of away goals scored in all group matches), in order to retain a maximum number of sporting criteria,” it continued.

President speaks
Meanwhile, speaking on the same, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin reckoned, “The impact of the rule now runs counter to its original purpose as, in fact, it now dissuades home teams – especially in first legs – from attacking, because they fear conceding a goal that would give their opponents a crucial advantage. There is also criticism of the unfairness, especially in extra time, of obliging the home team to score twice when the away team has scored.”

“It is fair to say that home advantage is nowadays no longer as significant as it once was. Taking into consideration the consistency across Europe in terms of styles of play and many different factors which have led to a decline in home advantage, the UEFA Executive Committee has taken the correct decision in adopting the view that it is no longer appropriate for an away goal to carry more weight than one scored at home,” he concluded.

Newsable's take
Although UEFA has decided to do away with the rule, we at Newsable feel that the decision is somewhat flawed. It could possibly reduce the competitiveness between the two sides, while it also kills the idea of having two-legged ties. Instead, scraping the rule during the extra time phase would have made more sense.

NOTE: Asianet News humbly requests everyone to wear masks, sanitise, maintain social distancing and get vaccinated as soon as eligible. Together we can and will break the chain #ANCares #IndiaFightsCorona

• UEFA
• Union of European Football Associations
• champions league
• champions league 2021-22
• ecl
• ecl 2021-22
• europa conference league
• europa conference league 2021-22
• europa league
• europa league 2021-22
• europe
• europe football
• ucl
• ucl 2021-22
• uef champions league
• uef champions league 2021-22
• uefa europa conference league
• uefa europa conference league 2021-22
• uefa europa league
• uefa europa league 2021-22
• uel
• uel 2021-22
• european football
• football
• soccer