UEFA could decide on drastic rule change for Champions League knockout matches

UEFA has decided against abolishing extra time in club competitions, despite concerns about player welfare. The decision comes after a debate about easing the burden on players in the congested soccer calendar.

Suggestions of a significant change to the Laws of the Game have been knocked back by a key decision by soccer’s European governing body. UEFA has been exploring amendments to the knock-out rounds of the Champions League and Europa League with a view to easing the burden on players in the second half of the congested soccer season.

With major tournaments now filling the calendar most summers, the top players are asked to perform in high-intensity matches without much time to reset and recover between seasons, increasing calls for the sport’s law-makers to take action on the grounds of player welfare.

According to reporting by Martyn Ziegler of The Times, UEFA’s club competitions committee debated but ultimately “ruled out” one possible remedy that would have put a new twist on knock-out soccer and likely influenced other governing bodies to follow suit.

The committee opted not to recommend the abolition of extra time in UEFA club competitions, which currently acts as a tie-breaker in the form of 30 additional minutes if teams are level at the end of the second leg of a knock-out tie.

“There had been some pressure to scrap extra time to reduce the burden on players in an already congested fixture calendar,” reports Ziegler. “There is also an argument that it gives an unfair advantage to the team playing at home in the second leg.“

Away goals rule abolished in 2021

UEFA moved to better balance two-legged ties in 2021, when it called time on the away goals rule. Since then, “37 Champions League matches have gone to extra time, with 15 of these ending in a penalty shoot-out. In the Europa League and Conference League just over half the ties that have gone to extra time have ended in penalties.”

Fears of negative soccer

Ziegler reports that fears of negative soccer on the part of unfancied teams targeting the more balanced tie-breaker of a penalty shoot-out underpinned the UEFA committee’s decision.

It was also felt that “it is better to try to achieve a result by playing extra time instead of going straight to the lottery of penalties.“ Extra time is often criticised as a tie-breaker and increasingly shunned at low levels of the game in favour of drawn cup ties going straight to penalties.