Golden goal

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The golden goal was a method used in football to decide the winner of games in elimination matches which end in a draw after the end of ordinary time (90 minutes). It is no longer used in FIFA authorized games, other than the FIFA Beach World Cup.

Its public origins can be traced to a letter published in the Times newspaper in London on April 16, 1992^{[citation needed]}. Two halves of fifteen-minute extra time are played. If any team scores a goal during extra time, that team becomes the winner and the game ends at once. The winning goal is known as the "golden goal." An equivalent phrase used in North American sports terminology, particularly in professional football and ice hockey, is "sudden death."

If there are no goals after both extra time periods, a penalty shootout decides the game.

If the teams are still tied after a penalty shootout then the game goes to sudden-death penalties, where each team takes one penalty each, until only one team scores, resulting in winning the game. The term golden goal was introduced by FIFA in 1993 along with the rule change because "sudden death" was perceived to have negative connotations. The golden goal was not compulsory, and individual competitions using extra time could choose whether to apply it during extra time. The first European Football Championship played with the rule was in 1996; the first World Cup played with the rule was in 1998.

The first golden goal since the 1993 rule change by FIFA was in March 1993 by Australia against Uruguay in a quarterfinal match at the FIFA World Youth Championships. The first English (and possibly professional) tournament to be decided by Golden Goal was the 1995 Auto Windscreens Shield when Birmingham City beat Carlisle United. The first major tournament final to be decided by such a goal was the 1996 European Football Championship, won by Germany over the Czech Republic. The golden goal in this final was scored by Oliver Bierhoff. Other major international tournament finals decided by a golden goal include:

2000 European Football Championship (France beat Italy)
Women's Gold Medal Game at the 2000 Summer Olympics (Norway beat USA)
2001 UEFA Cup Final (Liverpool F.C. beat Deportivo Alavés)
2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship (USA beat Canada)
2003 Confederations Cup (France beat Cameroon)
2003 Women's World Cup (Germany beat Sweden)

The first golden goal in World Cup history took place in 1998, as Laurent Blanc scored to enable France to defeat Paraguay in the Round of 16. In 2002, three games were decided by a golden goal - Senegal over Sweden and Korea over Italy in the Round of 16, and Turkey over Senegal in the quarter-final.

The golden goal rule was introduced to stimulate offensive flair and to effectively reduce the number of penalty shootouts. However, it was widely thought that this ruling backfired as more teams decided to play defensive football to safeguard against a loss.

In the 2002 season UEFA introduced a new rule, the so-called silver goal, to decide a competitive match. In extra time the team leading after the first fifteen minute half would win, but the game would no longer stop the instant a team scored. Competitions that operated extra time would be able to decide whether to use the golden goal, the silver goal, or neither procedure during extra time.

In February 2004, after widespread complaints about the impact of the rule from fans, the IFAB bowed to pressure and announced that after Euro 2004 in Portugal, both the golden goal and the silver goal procedures would be removed from the Laws of the Game. The 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany did not employ the golden goal in the event of a tied match during the knockout stage. ^[1]. Instead, in the event of a tied game after the original 90 minutes, two 15 minute halves of extra time were played. Then, if a tie remained after the 30 minutes of extra time, the winner was decided by a penalty shootout. ^[2]

Although it was mostly used in elimination matches worldwide, the golden goal was developed in Japan due to the cultural unease on neither side coming out as the winner of a game. The first competition in Japan that employed the rule was the 1991 league cup where it was used in both the group and elimination stages. At that time, the rule was referred to as sadon desu. a loanword from sudden death. J. League also adopted the rule for regular league matches from 1993 to 2002.