Sports Letters: Disappearing footballers

J. I. Stoodley
Wednesday 20 July 1994 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: In the context of the current debate on penalties as a method of settling matches in World Cup football still drawn after extra time, would it not be a preferable solution to institute a rule whereby after every five or 10 minutes one or two players from each team, at the choice of the managers, be taken off the field? This could be instituted either during any initial period of extra time or afterwards, during a sudden-death period.

Would such a solution not add to the excitement, open up the play so that a deciding goal would be very likely after 20 or 30 minutes, and make the result depend on football skills rather than haphazard penalties?

Yours,

J I STOODLEY

Brussels

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in