UEFA scraps Away goal rule from all club competitions from next season
On June 24 2021, UEFA announced that they are abolishing the away goals rule from all club competitions starting next season. The away goals rule has been in practice since 1965. It was used to determine a winner when teams were level on aggregate after a two-legged match. The team that scores more goals in the opponent’s team stadium was awarded the victory. After the scraping of the rule, the matches tied on aggregate will now be decided on extra time and then penalties, if needed.
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.”
The scraping of the away goals rule sparked debates over the football community. Many players and coaches believed that the away goals rule is essential to the Champions League and it gives a better chance to the smaller or the non-favorite teams to compete with the bigger clubs. Neymar, The former Barcelona player and the PSG Star commented that UEFA only removed because UEFA wants the players to play more and earn more money for UEFA. To provide some recent examples of the usage of the away goals rule, In the Women’s UEFA Champions League, Five-time Champions Lyon were eliminated by Paris Saint Germain to reach the semi-finals. In the men’s competition, FC Porto beat Juventus by using the away goals rule in the extra time to advance to the quarterfinals.
Even though there have been a lot of discussions, many fans and pundits believe that this is the right decision. As pointed out by the UEFA president, “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”. In many ways, this statement is true, we can even look at the Juventus vs Porto game where Porto scored in 115th minute to take the lead and suddenly Juventus had to score twice in 5 minutes to remain in the competition. There are pros and cons to each rule, and the scraping of the rule has caused much controversy, but in the long run, I believe it is for the better of the game.