Golden Goal and Silver Goal In Football

Golden Goal and Silver Goal In Football

Golden Goal and Silver Goal were football (soccer) rules used to determine the victor of a match that was tied at the end of regulation time during extra time periods. These rules were employed to provide interest and a sense of urgency to matches that remained inconclusive after the usual 90 minutes of play. However, these regulations are no longer used in most modern football competitions.

The Golden Goal was a rule that stated that the next goal scored in extra time would win the game. It may sound similar to the rules you learned on the playground in elementary school, with the premise that one last goal would decide the tournament. The Golden Goal rule is only in effect during extra time, not during the regular 90-minute game.

The normal extra-time format of two 15-minute halves was retained, but instead of the game restarting from a kick-off after a goal, it would terminate immediately. The team that scored the extra-time goal would automatically win the game, thus the moniker « Golden Goal, » with the club that conceded losing.

History of the Golden Goal

In the 1970s, North American football leagues employed the Golden Goal concept for the first time. It gained popularity after FIFA began using it in 1993. The name « Golden Goal » was chosen as an alternative to the more unpleasant word « Sudden Death. » The concept of the Golden Goal was optional in football and may be used at the discretion of competitions.

First golden goal

The 1996 European Championship was held shortly after, with Germany defeating the Czech Republic thanks to a goal from Oliver Bierhoff. At the 1998 World Cup, Laurent Blanc scored the first Golden Goal when France defeated Paraguay in the Round of 16. A 1994 Caribbean Cup qualifying match included one of the most notorious instances of a Golden Goal.

Silver Goal

The Silver Goal rule, like the Golden Goal rule, applied during extra time.

In this situation, if a team scores during the first half of extra time (the first 15 minutes), they will continue to play until the end of the second half (the second 15 minutes).

If the score was still equal at the end of the second half of extra time, the team who scored the Silver Goal would be declared the winner.

UEFA first used the Silver Goal in the 2002/03 season. The main distinction between the Golden Goal and the Silver Goal was that the latter did not automatically terminate the game. If the Silver Goal rule was in force, the game would be over if the scores were not level at the completion of the first half of extra time.

For example, if England and Germany were tied at 1-1 going into extra time before Germany stormed into a 3-2 lead at the end of the first half of extra time, the game would be over and Germany would be declared the winner. If the game was tied at halftime in extra time, the game would resume as normal.

History of the Silver Goal

The Silver Goal was founded in 2001 as a result of a gathering of 12 renowned coaches. They concluded that the Golden Goal had instilled a paralysing fear in players who were terrified of going into extra time just to lose the game due to a single goal. FIFA agreed in 2003 to eliminate the Golden Goal from the game. For the 2002/03 season, UEFA had already implemented a new regulation, the Silver Goal.

First Use of the Silver Goal

The first time the Silver Goal was used was when Ajax qualified for the Champions League group stages against GAK, with Tomas Galasek scoring in the 103rd minute. Galasek appeared in the only other game in which a Silver Goal was used to determine a game, when Greece defeated the Czech Republic in the Euro 2004 semi-finals.

Are we still utilising the Golden Goal today?

Although it no longer applies to the majority of major football tournaments, the Golden Goal rule is still in place in several nations. The regulation is still in use, for instance, in NCAA soccer in the USA, where games were decided by Golden Goals in the tournaments held in 1995, 1996, and 2002. Additionally, Golden Goals were used in the 2013 women’s tournament, as well as more recent goals in the 2017 and 2020 men tournaments.