When I was younger I remember watching some football matches in Brazil. Now, I don't remember if it was the Brazilian league of if it was state leagues inside Brazil. But I am almost 100% sure that they were matches of Campeonato Paulista.
At the beginning of each match they would dispute a penalty shoot-out to decide who would win an extra point in case the game was tied.
Here was the logic that was explained to me at the time:
- In football, when a team wins it gets 3 points and the other team gets 0 points.
- When a match is tied, each team receives 1 point.
- So technically a match is worth 3 points for a win-lose game, but it is worth only 2 points for a tie-tie game.
To solve this "problem" (in quotation because it turns out it is not a big problem after all) the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF in Portuguese) decided to test this formula where teams would dispute shoot-outs at the start of every game to see who would win one extra point in the case of a tied match.
I would like to know which year that formula was adopted? And, if possible, why it was not implemented in the following years? Was it a FIFA recommendation to implement it in the first place? Was it ever tested somewhere else? I asked some of my friends from Brazil but they think I am dreaming...