UEFA to abolish away goals rule after 56 years

The away goals rule is likely to become a thing of the past in European football, with UEFA set to abolish the tiebreaker used in the even of a draw in two-legged knockout ties.

UEFA’s Club Commission have now passed the issue on to the Executive Committee, who are expected to confirm the removal of the away goals rule.

A number of years ago, Diego Simeone requested in Nyon that the counting of away goals after extra time would be scrapped, as he felt it was an unfair deciding factor if one team has had 30 more minutes of playing away from home in which they can score.

The away goals rule decides drawn two-legged games by favouring the team that scores the most away goals.

…and it's moved a step closer to being scrapped after Uefa's club competitions committee decided to abolish it 👀#bbcfootball

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 28, 2021

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Now, it seems likely that the away goals rule as a whole will be removed from the game.

The current rule has been in place since 1965, when it was considerably more complicated for teams to travel to away European fixtures and when clubs had more limited scouting networks.