Blatter wants ban on draws

The most senior figure in world football yesterday called for drawn matches to be abolished in the latest of his eccentric proposals to change the face of the game. Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, world football's governing body, suggested draws should be banned and every game should yield a winning team.

Blatter believes in the case of a draw all matches should be decided by a penalty shootout because every game should have a definitive outcome. He told a German sports news agency: "Every game should have a winner. When you play cards or any other game, there's always a winner and a loser. We should have the courage to introduce a final decision in every game of football."

Previous Blatter ideas on how the game should be run have included the suggestion that women footballers wear tighter shorts and more feminine kits to increase their popularity.

He has also proposed making goals bigger to make games more exciting, dividing matches into quarters to allow more advertising and sponsorship opportunities, outlawing tackles to protect more skilful players and allowing linesmen to go onto the pitch to help referees make decisions.

Blatter claimed yesterday having a penalty shootout at the end of every drawn match would be the best solution but he was willing to examine other ways of ensuring no match ends in a draw.

"Penalties remain the best way to decide a game in the case of a draw but if anybody has a better idea, I am ready to listen to it.

"A game is about emotions. There is passion. It can be dramatic. At the end of it it's almost always a tragedy."

He added: "We can't be satisfied with draws. Pierre de Coubertin [the founder of the modern Olympics] said that the important thing was to take part, not to win. That's not true. In life you have a goal and in sport, too, you have a goal which you want to achieve."

Blatter said he was also against the idea of extra time. "After 90 minutes of the return leg, the tie should go straight into penalties. Extra time is like a second home game for the home team."

It would not be Blatter's decision to take personally, but he could make a recommendation to the International Football Association Board who would then be required to make a decision on whether to alter football' s rules.

The International Board decided in February to scrap both golden goals and silver goals to end drawn matches in finals of major competitions and to revert to extra time and then penalties.

The FIFA president also reaffirmed he was against the introduction of video or any other technical device to help referees make controversial decisions. "As long as I live there will be no technical help (for referees)," he said.

Blatter, whose mandate expires in 2007, did not rule out seeking a third term and suggested former Germany international Franz Beckenbauer should run for the presidency of UEFA.