FIFA wanted to change one of soccer’s most nerve-shredding rituals before the World Cup knockout rounds.
The answer was no.
A proposed tweak to the coin-toss procedure before penalty shootouts will not be introduced during the tournament after discussions with IFAB, soccer’s rulemaking body, The Athletic reported.
Getty ImagesThe change would have reduced the process before a shootout from two coin tosses to one.
Under the current rules, the referee first conducts a toss to determine which end of the stadium the penalties will be taken at. A second toss then decides which team gets to choose whether it shoots first or second.
FIFA’s proposal would have simplified that.
Instead of both decisions being settled separately, the team that won the single toss would have been allowed to choose either the end of the field or whether to shoot first or second. The losing team would get the remaining choice.
The idea was aimed at stopping one team from winning both tosses and gaining control over both parts of the shootout setup.
That scenario happened in May’s Champions League final, when Paris Saint-Germain won both tosses before the penalty shootout and went on to win the championship.
Referee Joao Pinheiro conducting the coin toss with South Africa’s Ronwen Williams and Canada’s Stephen Eustaquio before the FIFA 2026 World Cup’s first knockout game. FIFA via Getty ImagesBut FIFA’s push came with one major complication: the World Cup had already started.
There was reluctance to change the rules in the middle of the competition, according to the report, even with the tournament moving toward the knockout stage.
The proposal may still be revisited later, but it will not be in place for this World Cup.
That means any knockout game that goes to penalties will continue under the existing two-toss system.
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It also means one team could still win both decisions before a shootout — where the smallest edge can feel enormous.
For now, FIFA’s attempted penalty change has been kicked down the road.
