The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has addressed a concern raised by football pundits in the season of coronavirus and the raging effect it had on world football by knocking off the perceived advantage of an “away goals” rule going forward.
In the absence of fans and with some “home” matches needing to be played at third party stadiums due to COVID-19 restrictions, the rule felt anachronistic to the modern game seemingly being behind the times in ascribing some advantage to the visiting team.
On Thursday, UEFA announced that it will abolish the rule from all club competitions from the 2021-22 season.
In a tweet from the official account handle of the continental football governing body, UEFA posted: “The away goals rule will be removed from all UEFA club competitions from the 2021/22 season. Ties in which the two teams score the same number of goals over the two legs will now have two 15-minute periods of extra time, and, if required, penalty kicks.”
To resolve the issues that depended on away goals, according to UEFA, a stalemated tie in which both teams scored the same number of goals over two matches would now go straight to a typical extra-time format, with penalty kicks needed if the scores are still level at the end.
Previously, if teams were tied after both legs, the visiting team with more goal would progress instead.
