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It is usually from the United States that we hear complaints that there are two few goals in 'soccer' and that something should be done about it, for example by making the goals bigger. Fortunately, the United States has not established hegemony over the world's most popular sport. Nevertheless, there have been justifiable complaints that the structure of the Premiership encourages negative, defensive football because the financial penalties of relegation are so great and the first priority for over half the clubs in the top flight is to avoid it. The French League is also worried about the number of 0-0 draws, already numbering nearly forty in their top division this season. Among the suggestions put forward in a review are giving two points for a score goal, extra points for more than two or three goals scored and a penalty shootout at the end of drawn matches. Traditionalists would feel that a draw is often a fair result and does not necessarily mean a dull game (although I do find 0-0 draws frustrating). Peter Varney, the Charlton chief executive, praised the French league for reexamining such a fundamental part of its game. But he doubted that introducing such changes in the Premiership would reduce the number of games that are either irrelevant to a team's title chances or are dominated by very defensive football. 'There's no magic answer to what to do about the fact that the majority of Premiership clubs know they have no chance of winning it, such as changing the points structure,' Varney said. 'It comes down to the way money is distributed in the game and the gap between the top few clubs and the rest. 'We need a wide-ranging debate on our future direction to ensure we remain among the best leagues in the world.' No surprise that I agree with our Reg.
A director of another Premiership club said fans would oppose any move to banish draws or 'mess around' with the points structure. 'The change from two to three points for a win provided all the incentive teams need to play attacking football,' he said. 'We mess with the game's traditions at our peril.'
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