While the writing was on the wall for a while now, the European football governing body, UEFA have confirmed that the away goals rule has been abolished from all club competitions. The UEFA Executive Committee was in a meeting today, where the decision was officially confirmed.
Away goals rule has been a part of European competitions since 1965. The basic idea behind the rule was to reward a team if they perform well away from home. Hence, if two teams scored the same number of goals across the two legs, the team that scored more away goals used to advance to the next round.
However, according to statistics released by UEFA, home advantage is not as significant an advantage in modern day football, as it was a few decades ago. There are multiple reasons for this.
Firstly, the teams competing in European competitions all have a standardized pitch, so that any visiting team will not have to deal with a disadvantage. Technology also has played a part in this decline of home advantage.
Given that home support was always much louder than a small pocket of away fans, it has to be admitted that there have been numerous occasions where refereeing decisions have favoured the hosts.However, with the introduction of VAR and other advanced technological facilities, that issue has been successfully resolved.
During the COVID-19 period, home advantage was rendered completely ineffective, as with no fans in the stadium, it seemed as if every game was staged on a neutral venue. After scrutinizing all of these factors, UEFA have decided to abolish the away goals rule.
The away goals rule has been an intrinsic part of UEFA competitions since it was introduced in 1965. However, the question of its abolition has been debated at various UEFA meetings over the last few years. Although there was no unanimity of views, many coaches, fans and other football stakeholders have questioned its fairness and have expressed a preference for the rule to be abolished.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said, as per quotes in UEFA’s website.
It is fair to say that home advantage is nowadays no longer as significant as it once was. Taking into consideration the consistency across Europe in terms of styles of play, and many different factors which have led to a decline in home advantage, the UEFA Executive Committee has taken the correct decision in adopting the view that it is no longer appropriate for an away goal to carry more weight than one scored at home.
he further added.
The abolition of away goals rule subsequently means that if teams are tied on goals scored after two legs from now onwards, the game will go on to extra time.
