The Dumbest Rule in Sports

AC Milan have been eliminated from the UEFA Cup following a 2-2 draw at home. 

Did Milan lose in a penalty shootout? Nope, Milan lost due to the dumbest rule in sports, the away goal aggregate. 

For some reason in 2 leg matches away goals are used as the tiebreaker for draws. 

I don't understand why away goals are valued this way. 

Both teams have an equal opportunity to play 1 game at home and 1 game away. Since the advantage of playing at home is given to both teams, the advantage cancels itself out. 

No matter how each team plays at home or away, total goal aggregate should be counted with ties going to a penalty shootout or extra time situation. 

Just because Milan tied 1-1 away and tied 2-2 at home does not mean they played worse than Bremen nor does it mean that the 3 goals Bremen scored were in any way better than Milan's goals. 

Its unfortunate that rules like this and the proposed 6+5 rule are being used because I really think it takes away from the game. 


Comments

Andrei said…
I believe the rule was introduced instead of playing extra game when UEFA Cup competition started in early 70s. The typical arguments are that extra game is too expensive and the team playing second leg at home has advantage going to overtime or penalty kicks. Away goal rule is supposed to balance this. BTW they don't have away goal rule in Copa Libertadores.

Anyway, I understand how you feel but AC Milan deserved to go out after that meltdown the second half.
mad6986 said…
hey andrei thanks for sharing this info...

I can understand how a home team could have an advantage with penalty kicks, i'm just mad that away goals is how a 2 game series is decided.

with that being said, Milan did not deserve to win.
Anonymous said…
you pointed out that the home advantage would be canceled out by the fact that both teams play at home, but the advantage that goals are worth twice as much away from home is given to both sides as well
i think this rule was introduced to prevent teams from playing too defensively away from home, making for a boring game, and though sometimes it isn't fair, a lot of times football isn't fair, sometimes a team will win by one goal that was complete luck and against the run of play, that's just the game

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