Changing The Penalty Shootout Rule

Several days ago, Chelsea Football Club won the UEFA championship in a penalty shootout against the FC Bayern Munich. In the eyes of many purists and soccer pundits, the winning team was less deserving based on an assessment of the tactics adopted and the distribution of skills displayed on that day.  Simply put, the Chelsea FC are an inferior footballing side to the Bayern Munich team irrespective of the outcome. Most of the pundits were concerned that the triumph of an inferior side could spark a widespread imitation that could reduce the entertainment value of this high profile tournament. As if the condemnation was not enough, the president of FIFA spoke about the manner of that triumph and suggested that the sports discipline of soccer should consider the development of an alternative to penalty shootouts.  

In my view, that response is too drastic and perhaps denigrates the hard work that one team put in to ensure that it won. My view, is that notwithstanding the justifiable disappointment that many purists and fans of the game may feel, this reaction is too drastic and altogether unjustified. For a start, it assumes that winning a penalty shootout is manifestation of no preparation when that portion of the game is itself very technical and skill-driven. Secondly, it feels as if the revision of laws is driven by animus towards one team's tactics in spite of the fact that they represent a legitimate approach to the game. It may be ugly soccer but is within the rules. Finally, I think that the officials of FIFA and administrators of the game must be careful because there may be unintended consequences of the anticipated changes too. 

It is worthy to recall that Formula 1 has had so many technical changes to the sport with the ostensible reason of making it more interesting and simply changed the dominant sides from one team to another. My advise would be to let teams learn to cope by creating new approaches to ensure that they triumph against the more defensive minded sides. It is my understanding that fans tend to reward the teams that play more entertaining soccer. If some clubs make the trade off in order to win tournaments, then that should be acceptable to all.