Once again England crash out of the world cup in a penalty shoot-out against Portugal. Even though I was supporting Portugal, no matter who gets beat in a penalty shoot-out, even if it is England, I still feel some sympathy for them. It has to be the most cruel way, in all sports, to be knocked out of a competition. (England have won only one of six penalty shoot-outs that they have taken part in, Germany have lost only one of the five penalty shoot-outs they've been involved in, maybe the English could learn something from their German counterparts.)

Anyway, a new way has to be introduced to decide drawn games. Shoot-outs are too much of a lottery. I've been thinking about this quite a lot, and the following is my proposal. A goalie and two players from one side, Team A, should come up against three players from the other side, Team B. The 3 players from Team B are given the ball at the centre circle, and the 3 players from A are in the box of the goal they are defending. Team B then have 30 seconds in which to try and score a goal. If the ball is kicked into touch by either side, then the chance is finished. We then play out the same scenario at the other end, but with A attacking B. When one team scores and other team doesn't, then they are declared as winners. The system from shoot-outs, whereby both teams have 5 chances, could be implemented also.

This way the players can be more creative in trying to score goals, instead of simply hitting the ball from 12 yards and hoping. After some experimenting, the system could be altered to include extra attacking players if necessary. With any luck penalty shoot-out would then be a thing of the past.