Away goals have shaped the fate of many European giants in both the Champions League as well as the Europa League but after 56 years, The Times are claiming that UEFA are going to ditch the away goals rule from the 2021-22 season.
The report claims: “Uefa competitions chiefs have given the green light to scrapping the away goals rule in the Champions League and Europa League from next season.
“The move to ditch the rule — which has existed in European club competitions since 1965 — was revealed by The Times this week and Uefa’s club competitions committee have taken the decision, which now needs to be approved by Uefa’s executive committee.”
This is not the first time UEFA have tried to scrap the away goals rule in recent times as the report claims that in the past eight years, at least two attempts have been made to ditch this generation old rule
A source told the Times: “The view is that it is much easier to score an away goal now than it was in the Seventies and Eighties, when football was lower-scoring and stadiums were more hostile.
“There was less visibility surrounding a match in terms of refereeing, quality of the pitch and organisation, so home advantage is not so significant [now].”
NEW: UEFA clubs competitions committee decides to scrap away goals rule in European football. Now needs ExCo approval.
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) May 28, 2021
There’s no denying that the importance of away goals are decreasing with each passing season and in the recent past, teams are no longer afraid to go away from home and play an attacking brand of football.
Football is constantly evolving into an attack-heavy sport so this is the perfect time for UEFA to scrap the away goals rule – something which forced visiting sides to play defensive and cautious football in enemy territory.
Obviously, the new rule needs to be approved by the Executive committee but since the chiefs have already given it the green light, it’s only a matter of time before UEFA comes out to announce the scrapping of away goals.
