Does a sudden death liven up the game? Rules, incentives, and strategy in football

Banerjee, A.N. and Swinnen, J.F.M. (2002) Does a sudden death liven up the game? Rules, incentives, and strategy in football (Discussion Papers in Economics and Econometrics, 214) Southampton. University of Southampton

Record type: Monograph (Discussion Paper)

Abstract

In an effort to stimulate more attractive football, the international football association FIFA, has introduced several new rules over the past decades. One of the most recent rule change is the introduction of the "sudden death" or "golden goal" rule for games going into extra time play. This paper analyses under which conditions, if any, the introduction of the sudden death rule improves the attractiveness of the football game. Our theoretical results indicate that the new rule will not change the behavior of the teams when they are equally powerful. Empirical evidence suggests that it may indeed may be the case as the chances of scoring a goal did not change with the introduction of the new rule.

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