Paying the penalty in Seville

THE results of the recent FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Chelsea, and Rangers’ journey to Seville, are the latest demonstrations of the glaringly unfair and inappropriate means of deciding matches, introduced at the behest of those who now control football world-wide – the television companies, in order to suit programme scheduling.

Penalty shoot-outs are accurately described as lotteries: in other words, activities whose outcome is entirely dependent on luck or chance. They bear no relation whatsoever to what has transpired during the previous 120 minutes.

In days of yore, when football was run for the supporters, drawn major matches were replayed until a result was achieved.

Another method occasionally employed to decide the winner was simply to toss a coin at the end of a drawn game – a method which, unlike the penalty shoot-out, did not pretend to be anything other than the result of pure chance.

In the absence of any resolution of matches by a means which relates directly to the foregoing proceedings, logic would suggest that they be abandoned and results be decided by penalty shoot-outs of whatever duration.

Duncan Macintyre, Greenock.

HOW much did it cost BBC licence-fee payers to send three reporters (two of whom are not recognised as sports reporters) and their entourage of producers, cameramen, sound engineers and make-up assistants to Seville for a threeminute slot on the Europa League final on BBC Scotland’s news programme?

What makes it laughable is that none of them were inside the stadium where the match was taking place.

Who in senior management thought it was a good way to waste money at a time when the broadcaster is continually complaining about a lack of cash to spend on programmes?

Alan Mcgibbon,

Paisley.