Welsh Premier League back new penalty system

The Welsh Premier League have announced that they back the plans of UEFA to introduce the new “ABBA” penalty system at the AGM on Saturday.

At the Welsh Premier League’s AGM, held on Saturday in Newport. A whole host of league enhancing changes were announced, including the trial of the UEFA proposed “ABBA” penalties for shootouts in the Nathaniel MG Cup for 2017-18.

Traditionally, penalty shootouts would involve two teams taking five alternating penalties, with sudden death being used if a winner isn’t found in the first five. UEFA suggest under the current shootout rules, the team taking the second kick are at a psychological disadvantage, with research from IFAB (International Football Association Board) suggesting the team taking the first spot kick have a 60% win rate.

In an attempt to diminish the advantage, UEFA have begun trialling a new format for penalties, commonly known as “ABBA”, which saw its first outing in the Women’s Under-17 European Championships which were held in Croatia. Germany were the unsurprising winners of the first ABBA shootout in the Women’s U17 Euro semi-final against Norway on May 11^th 2017. England have also been involved in a shootout under the new rules, as they lost the Men’s U17 Euros final to Spain on May 19^th.

ABBA differ from the current ABAB format by Team 1 taking the first kick as normal, but Team 2 then taking kicks 2 and 3 of the shootout, Team 1 will then take 4 and 5 and the teams will then continue taking 2 consecutive penalties.

(How the new penalty format will look for each round of spot kicks)

With the announcement of the trial format taking place in the Nathaniel MG Cup, Wales and the FAW have become the first football association to confirm a trial of the new format in a domestic competition, with the first possible outing for Welsh fans on August 29^th during the first round ties.

(Featured Image: rayand)