Fifa president Blatter wants alternative to penalties. Is there one?

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has called on Germany’s World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer and his panel of soccer experts to try to come up with an alternative to penalty shootouts to settle drawn matches.

Blatter was speaking to delegates at the FIFA Congress on Friday less than a week after Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on penalties to win the Champions League final.

“Football can be a tragedy when you go to penalty kicks. Football is a team game when it goes to one against one football loses its essence,” Blatter said.

“Perhaps Franz Beckenbauer, with his Football 2014 group, can show us a solution, perhaps not today but in the future.”

Beckenbauer, among the delegates at the congress, was not immediately available for comment.

But what could these alternatives be?

Flip a coin: A penalty shootout, contrary to popular belief, needs a lot of skill. According to Blatter though, a coin-flip could be a better option.

Last man standing: Keep playing till there’s only one man standing. Or, just brawl… the lone player who survives makes his team win. Old-school, eh?

Rematch: A saner option than the two above, play again in a couple of days. More TV rights, more match-day revenue, double the excitement and well, just more money basically. This could lead to infinite loop matches though.

Score from half-line in an empty net: Teams with David Beckham and Xabi Alonso could easily win this one. Maybe Paul Scholes will come on for only this. No goalkeeper in the net, place and ball and chip it in the net. Pure technique.

Manager/Staff play-off: The staff play a short 5-a-side match. If they can’t decide that way, then they can take penalties. Would be exciting to see who wins: Jose Mourinho or Alex Ferguson? Maybe Andre Villas-Boas?

FIFA/PES Games: Pick two players from each team and play a match on co-op match on FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer on the Playstation or the Xbox. The match will be shown on the big screens at stadiums and on TV screens too.

Do you have any suggestions?

With inputs from Reuters