Away goals rule scrapped in Uefa competitions including Champions League

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The away goals rule in European club football is to be abolished from the start of next season, governing body Uefa has confirmed.

The rule, used since 1965, decided drawn two-legged games by favouring the team that scored the most away goals.

All ties level on aggregate at the end of the second leg will instead go to extra time and potentially penalties.

"It is no longer appropriate for an away goal to carry more weight," said Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin.

Uefa's club competitions committee made the proposal in May and it has now been approved by the body's executive committee.

It means games in the Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League and Women's Champions League will no longer use the rule.

Uefa says there is now a smaller gap between the number of home and away wins as well as home and away goals scored in European competitions compared to when the rule was introduced, reducing home advantage.

It says that is down to a number of factors including pitch quality, improved stadium infrastructure and new technology such as the video assistant referee.

"The impact of the rule now runs counter to its original purpose as, in fact, it now dissuades home teams - especially in first legs - from attacking, because they fear conceding a goal that would give their opponents a crucial advantage," Ceferin added.

"There is also criticism of the unfairness, especially in extra-time, of obliging the home team to score twice when the away team has scored.

"It is fair to say that home advantage is now no longer as significant as it once was."

 

 

Some of our biggest moments in our history are all on the away goal rule.

Bloody shame if you ask me, too many changes coming at once, changing the game for the worse in a lot of respects.

With it goes the fun of winding up people who take a children’s game way too seriously by constantly saying away goals are worth double. 

I'm ok with the change of the rule, I think that football has changed, most players nowadays get first class flights to matches all around Europe where the pitch is in a perfect condition and they earn so much money that they couldn't care less what fans think. 20-30 years ago there was still a different football culture all around Europe and the world was a much different place.

Edited June 24, 20215 yr by Gol15

If it ain't broke don't fix it. 

On 25/06/2021 at 00:48, coco said:

Some of our biggest moments in our history are all on the away goal rule.

Bloody shame if you ask me, too many changes coming at once, changing the game for the worse in a lot of respects.

Probably in the minority but I'm glad. In modern football the rule heavily favours the side away in the second leg because it punishes a home team who tries to attack in the first leg, for a really arbitrary reason. 

Our CL semifinal in 2009 against Barcelona cemented that opinion for me. Practically speaking it will make little difference as an away side scoring late to equalise will more than likely have the momentum shift in their favour.

It will likely result in more dominant home teams in the first leg but that is no issue.

 

Silly decision to change it.

I wish UEFA would just take a back seat and leave the game alone. All of these unnecessary changes that nobody asked for is ruining the game. 

7 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I wish UEFA would just take a back seat and leave the game alone. All of these unnecessary changes that nobody asked for is ruining the game. 

Totally agree with you!

So what happens when it's 1-1 and 0-0? Penalties?

I personally don't enjoy UEFA trying to change things that are working. They should spend the resources on streamlining things that do impact games like computerizing offsides and streamlining handball rules as well as reviewing referee's performances game by game to avoid another Ovrebo.

These footballing bodies (FIFA and UEFA) keep messing the sport up.