Melbourne, Victoria Nov 11, 2022 (Issuewire.com) - Next month in Qatar during the 2022 FIFA World Cup we will yet again witness players who miss kicks during a penalty shootout subjected to vile abuse, racism, and even death threats. Attacker Defender Goalkeeper (ADG) is a new alternative to the penalty shootout. ADG features a series of 10 contests where an attacker kicks off from 32 yards and has 20 seconds to score a goal against a defender and a goalkeeper. ADG combines the skill, speed, and dynamic beauty of modern football, with the climactic drama and tension of penalties.
While missed penalty kicks usually decide the winner of a shootout, it will be the goals that decide ADG. A negative-natured competition is transformed into a positive one. Where the shootout creates villains and subsequent victims, ADG creates heroes.
“While there’s a growing awareness by most sports towards athletes’ mental health, football and FIFA remains stuck in a 1970’s time-warp,” says ADG developer, Tim Farrell. “You just have to listen to the ex-players who have missed important kicks. Some say it affected them for years. Others were stigmatised and couldn’t find work. One describes it as unspeakable pain and said he was psychologically destroyed. Another says it was a nightmare and recounts how their world collapsed. Reading these quotes you’re left with no doubt that the shootout fosters serious long-term psychological trauma. And now the situation is even worse. Death threats were made against players at the tournament four years ago. A Chelsea striker received racial abuse and death threats after a 2019 club match. While three English players received racial abuse after missing kicks during the Euro final last year.”
“Twenty years ago, Terry Venables, who no one is going to mistake as a new-age sensitive guy, said, ‘We ought not to be subjecting people to this kind of pressure. Penalties put too much strain on one player.’ Since then, the situation has only gotten worse. Today’s players have to endure vile abuse, racism, and death threats via social media. It’s a totally unacceptable situation. FIFA created this problem, so they need to pull their finger out and look for solutions. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait for a catastrophic real-life tragedy before anything actually changes.”
In addition to improving player welfare, ADG also solves the penalty shootout’s two other major problems: it fails to showcase the game, and the team kicking first has a 20% advantage.
For more information, visit: www.theadgalternative.com
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