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GoldenGoal

Golden Goal

The golden goal was a hair-brained initiative designed to stop all games that go to extra-time resulting in penalties. It had the opposite effect.

Under the short-lived golden goal rule, the first team to score during extra-time would immediately win the game. It is thought that FIFA based the idea on the ‘next goal wins’ call popular in playground football.

The theory was that this would encourage teams to attack after a game had finished level in normal time. Instead, it put the fear of God into both sides, who would opt for the comparatively blameless penalty shoot-out.

Both sides would often stand stock still with the ball on the centre spot for the full 30 minutes rather than risk giving away the crucial goal.

The first man to score a golden goal in British football was Huddersfield Town’s Iain Dunne, who became a hero by winning the Terriers the 1994 Auto Windscreens Shield with an extra-time strike to make it 3-2.

An emotional Dunne was struck by the magnitude of his achievement after the game: ‘It’s just nice to get it done early so we can get off home,’ he said as he bundled the trophy into the back of his Ford Focus. ‘At this time of night the A629 is a nightmare,’

Germany won the Final of Euro 96 against the Czech Republic with Oliver Bierhoff netting a golden goal. However, with the new rule still widely unpublicised, a number of players continued playing and the tournament came to an undignified conclusion as the referee had to explain to the 22 players, two coaches and 60,000 fans that Germany were the champions of Europe.

At World Cup 1998, South American spoil-sports Paraguay paid dearly for their policy of never scoring or conceding in normal time when Laurent Blanc scored a golden goal to send France through at their expense.

After the daft 2002 World Cup in which Senegal beat Sweden, South Korea beat Italy (in a rigged game) and Turkey beat Senegal on golden goals, the golden goal rule was replaced by the fractionally less silly silver goal rule.

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