The Ghana Football Association has resolved to introduce penalty shootouts in the soon to start Juvenile Football Leagues.
This innovation which is novel in the Ghanaian football setup will see matches which end in a draw in the Juvenile Football Leagues proceed to penalty shootouts to decide the winner.
In announcing the initiative at the launch of the 2020-21 Juvenile Football Legaue on Wednesday, the GFA President Kurt Edwin Simeon Okraku explained that the move was to help prepare Ghana’s next generation of football talents perfect their penalty shootout execution skills.
He explained that penalty shootouts have been Ghana’s bane at major international competitions and the introduction of this innovation promises to play a role in overcoming this hoodoo.
“For so many years, Ghana has suffered a lot from our inability to score at the penalty spot when games end in stalemates. The Black Stars we remember Senegal 92 (which is) just one of the key examples,” he said.
“So beginning this season, all juvenile games that end in stalemates will be decided via penalty shootouts. So what that means is that when the game ends in 0-0, 1-1 or 3-3 we’ll resort to the penalty shootout to decide the winner.
“The winner gets 2 points while the losing team one,” he concluded.
The Juvenile League is set to start on the weekend of May 7/8/9, 2021.