Every 4 years we have the soccer world cup. Sometimes the teams are so closely matched that the world cup final moves into penalties. This happened 4 years ago in Germany during the 2006 world cup final between Italy and France with Italy becoming the world cup champions. But is going to penalties at the end of a world cup final fair?
The world cup attracts hundreds of millions of viewers every 4 years, during the world cup finals 32 teams from different countries play 64 matches to decide which country is to become the world cup champions. These millions of views are supporting there country hoping for glory.
4 years ago France was left disappointed to lose to Italy after a penalty shootout at the end of the world cup final. Many people say it is unfair that the game even went to finals. Soccer is a great sport where in a moment notice 1 team can suddenly come back from many goals down only to come and win the game. Soccer is a team game and through how the team plays either through attacking, or defending will determine the outcome of the game. Penalties takes away from this. When penalties are used at the end of a game it is no longer about the team, its all down to 1 person, the goal keeper. This may be alright during a regular game as of course the game needs to end sometime, however in such a large game shown to millions across the globe it can often lead to a huge disappointment when the teams can not battle it out till the end.
On the other hand many say that penalties are part of a soccer game. Penalties only occur once the 90 minute game has been played, and 30 minutes of extra time has also been played and the scores are still even. That's over 120 minutes with injury time. If scores are staying even after this length of time then they are unlikely to change much as the players are usually very tired by this time, and only 3 substitutions are allowed during a game which are usually all long complete before this stage of the game. Because the game is shown around the world TV schedules have to be changed due to time constraints, and if the game goes on too much longer peoples daily schedules may also be affected.
Overall depending on if your a soccer fanatic or simply someone cheering your country on to win will depend on if you are in favor of penalties during a final or not. Soccer fanatics may want to see the best team win, others may simply find 120 minutes too much and want a result as soon as possible. Are penalties fair? You decide.
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