Football is full of emotion in each of its faces. Beginning with the atmosphere in the stadium, through the feeling and dedication that each of the participants use to achieve the creation of a unique show and even the unpredictability of the result.
In football, unlike in other disciplines, draws exist. A few times is enough. Others, however, it is necessary to extend the ninety minutes to determine a winner.
Today’s post is about what lies beyond the length of the game. Penalties are the last hurdle a team must face to achieve glory, if it has not been conclusive before.
However, this has not always been the case. Until 1962, the playoffs took place after another match that defined which side would win. The trigger was a Ramon de Carranza Trophy, in Cadiz, which faced Real Zaragoza and FC Barcelona. The director of the host team, Rafael Ballesteros Sierra, proposed a series of penalty kicks to resolve the match more quickly.
The proposal was adopted years later by FIFA, and was first officially used at the 1976 European Championship in Yugoslavia.
Gary Lineker once declared that “football is a sport invented by the English, they play eleven against eleven and Germany always wins”. Well, it was in Spain where it became a delusion.
Foot Renegades 