Hurst opposed to Fifa talk on alternative to shoot-outs

Dubai England legend Sir Geoff Hurst has said he dreads to think what Fifa will come up with next as an alternative to penalty shoot-outs, after a recent call to amend the way tied games are decided.

The 70-year-old is firmly in favour of spot kicks, insisting there is a great deal of "nerve" and "skill" involved in taking them.

But last week, Fifa president Sepp Blatter asked Franz Beckenbauer, the Bayern Munich honorary president, to come up with an alternative to the "tragedy" of shoot-outs in his 2014 Football Task Force, designed to recommend rule changes. Speaking at a Fifa Congress in Budapest this week, Blatter said: "Football can be a tragedy when you go to penalty kicks. Football should not go to one to one. When it goes to penalty kicks, football loses its essence. Perhaps Franz Beckenbauer with his football 2014 group can show us a solution."

Hurst said: "I think penalties are fine. The thing is sometimes people try to mess around with the small things in the game and not concentrate on the big things [like goalline technology].

"Penalties are a success. There's a great element of skill in holding your nerve with penalties, and the quality people succeed. It's about quality. A lot of people say there's an element of luck in them, and there probably is, but there's also a great element of nerve and skill in picking the right people who have the nerve to take them. I think penalties are a fantastic addition to the game.

He added: "I'm frightened to think what they [Fifa] will come up with next. There was talk they'd shorten a tied game by handing a win to the team which won the most corners. That's appalling; whoever mentioned that? A team can't win because they got more corners, that is just disastrous — it has to be fair."

Hurst welcomed the fact that goalline technology will be tried for the first time in an international match when England play Belgium in a friendly on Saturday. Speaking to Gulf News, Hurst said: "It's about time too. It will cut out all those ridiculously bad errors that have cost clubs and national teams over the years."