Penalty shootouts - the only solution?

It's a lottery. The 'dreaded' penalty shootout. One of these keepers will be a hero. "Kevin, will Batty score this penalty?".

The cliches you associate with spot kicks deciding a game. It's painful to watch if you're involved, even if you're a neutral. They can decide in a couple of minutes something which could have required a dozen games with no outcome. In their early years, both the MLS and Japanese J-League used shootouts to resolve drawn league games, before seeing the error of their ways.

But, are there any better alternatives to penalties?

The silver/golden goal

More commonly associated with ice hockey, golden goals were brought in to reduce penalty shootouts - it was basically 'next goal wins'. It provided some big moments, the Euro 96 final was resolved by an Oliver Bierhoff golden goal. Due to teams trying to defend to force penalties anyway, the silver goal was introduced, where the team winning at half time in extra time would win. The Euro 2004 semi final was won by a silver goal scored by Greece. That also fell by the wayside, and back to penalries it was.

Golden goal wins Euro 2000 for France

Coin toss

A simple game of chance? Oh no. The humble coin toss was the ultimate choice when it came to resolving the 1968 European Championship semi final between the USSR and Italy - Italy won the toss, therefore the match after a 0-0 draw. Flipping the coin is used already for choosing ends, and of course who goes first in a penalty shootout. Until physical money is replaced, the option is always there. But does the era of legal wrangling mean the end to this pipe dream?

The Queen was not interfering with play

Reducing number of players

One idea bandied around whenever England lose a penalty shootout is the plan that once in extra time, each team should withdraw a player at regular intervals, reducing the number of players on the pitch, until a goal in scored. This does not help on occasions when commentators speculate "they could play all night and not score a goal", or of course when all the players are gone. Another hockey idea, maybe we could also bring in fighting to the death as well.

Arsenal were forced to play with Squillaci and Chamakh instead of no-one

Of course, if penalty shootouts were never invented, we'd have missed out on some of football's golden moments. John Terry's Moscow slip of 2008. Pearce's redemption in 1996. Grobbelaar's wobble in Rome in 1984.

And while strictly speaking not a shootout, we may have also been denied the greatest World Cup penalty miss of all time...

Ross scuffs it