Fresh reports suggest that football’s governing council FIFA is considering conducting pre-match penalty shootouts in the 2026 edition of the World Cup, which will be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
This is reportedly being considered to avoid complicated tiebreak systems in the event that two teams are drawn on points in the group stages. The shootout prior to the game will award a bonus point to the winner, which could result in a drastic change to the way the group stages of the tournament are played. It has already been finalised that the 2026 World Cup will include 48 teams in place of the current 32-team format.
Additionally, the organising body decided that there would be 16 groups of three teams in the competition. The problem with the format is that two teams will be aware of the third team’s point total before the final match day.
From each of the 16 groups, two of the top teams will advance to the knockout stage, which consists of 32 teams. FIFA is considering a penalty shootout to give the teams an additional point in order to prevent collusion.
The problem with that, though, is that if the shootout is contested at the end of the game, teams may still predict which outcome will favour them. In order to avoid such a situation, FIFA is considering implementing the shootout rule prior to the start of a game.
The new system that FIFA is contemplating also aims to combat potential foul play, something that has taken place at the World Cup before. The disgrace of Gijon, as it is infamously called, took advantage of a similar scheduling loophole, allowing West Germany and Austria to arrive at an amicable result for both teams in the 1982 World Cup.
West Germany, who couldn’t have made it past the group stages if not for the unethical arrangement, managed to reach the final, where they eventually lost to Italy.
