Sepp Blatter is at it again. The FIFA president said today that penalty shoot-outs are “a tragedy”. He challenged Franz Beckenbauer, honorary president of Bayern Munich, and head of the Football Task Force 2014 – a panel that will recommend rule changes to football – to come up with an alternative.

Two of football’s biggest tournaments this last season were decided by penalty shoot-outs: Chelsea’s Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich, and the African Nations Cup when Zambia beat Ivory Coast.

Blatter told the FIFA Congress in Budapest:

Football can be a tragedy when you go to penalty kicks. Football should not go to one to one, when it goes to penalty kicks football loses its essence. Perhaps Franz Beckenbauer with his football 2014 group can show us a solution perhaps not today but in the future.

Meanwhile, the decision on the introduction of goal-line technology is now expected to take place in Zurich in July, rather than the day after the Euro 2012 final in Kiev.

Currently, tests are being carried out on two goal-line systems including an experiment on the Hawkeye system at the England versus Belgium match at Wembley next month.

The International FA Board had been due to meet in the Ukraine capital on July 2, but instead the meeting has been rescheduled for July 5 in Zurich due to logistical issues in organising the meeting so soon after the tournament finishes.

You might have seen that we’ve been enjoying online flash gaming lately. Well, we’ve been sinking Sepp since lunchtime.

[Source: BBC]