AWAY GOALS RULE

The 'away goals rule' is a method of breaking ties in football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. By the away goals rule, the team that has scored more goals (points, baskets) "away from home" will win if scores are otherwise tied. This is sometimes expressed by saying that away goals "count double" in the event of a tie^[1].
The away-goals rule is most often invoked in two-legged fixtures, where the initial result is determined by the aggregate score — i.e. the scores of both games are added together. In many competitions, the away goals rule is the first tie-breaker for such cases, with a penalty shootout as the second tie-breaker if each team has scored the same number of away goals. Rules vary as to whether the away goals rule applies at the end of normal time of the second leg, or after extra time, or (most commonly) after both.
The away goals rule is intended to encourage the away team to be more aggressive. However, players and managers sometimes state before a home leg that 'it is vital for us not to concede a goal', so the home team may play more defensively than usual.

Contents

Usage

Anomalies

References

Usage

The away goals rule is applied in many football competitions that involve two-legged fixtures, including the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup, and any two-legged playoffs used in qualification for the FIFA World Cup or European Championships.
Not all competitions use the away goals rule. For example, before 2005, CONMEBOL used neither the away goals rule nor extra time in any of its competitions, such as the Copa Libertadores. Ties that were level on aggregate went to an immediate penalty shootout. The away goals rule (without extra time) was introduced to the Copa Libertadores in 2005. In Latin America, an example of a tournament that always has used this rule is Copa do Brasil (Brazilian Cup).
In English football, two-legged fixtures in the League Cup are only subject to the away goals rule after extra time; even if one team leads on away goals after 90 minutes of the second leg, extra time is played regardless.
The semi-finals of the promotion playoffs in the Football League, despite being two-legged, ceased to employ the away goals rule from 2000. As away goals scored in extra time counted double, the side finishing lower in the league gained an advantage by playing away in the 2nd leg, thus giving them 30 more minutes to score an away goal. The rescindment of the away goals rule has affected the results of several play-off semi-finals.
The away goals rule is sometimes used in round robin competitions (i.e. leagues or qualifying groups), where it may be used to break ties involving more than two teams. For example, in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, away goals are the sixth tiebreaker,^[2] and away goals are the third tiebreaker in the group stage of both the UEFA Champions League^[3] and UEFA Cup.^[4] Because other tiebreakers take precedence, the away goals rule is rarely invoked in such tournaments. In many group tournaments, the away goals rule is never applicable; for example, in World Cup qualification^[5].

Anomalies

If the two clubs contesting a two-legged fixture share the same stadium, each club is the home club in one leg, and the rule still applies. In many such cases, most tickets to each leg will be reserved for the "home" side's fans, so the designation is not simply arbitrary. More anomalous was a qualification play-off for the 1991 World Youth Championship between Australia and Israel: Australia won on away goals even though, due to security concerns arising from the First Intifada, Israel's "home" leg was played in Australia ^[6]
There has been at least one case of a wrong application of the away goals rule by a referee in an international club tournament. It happened during the second-round tie in the 1971–72 Cup Winners' Cup between Rangers and Sporting Lisbon. This fixture had the following scorelines:

★ ''First leg:'' Rangers 3–2 Sporting

★ ''Second leg, after 90 minutes:'' Sporting 3–2 Rangers

★ ''Second leg, after extra time:'' Sporting 4–3 Rangers
Since the teams were now level 6–6 on aggregate, the referee ordered a penalty shootout, which Sporting won 3–0. However, Rangers appealed the loss on the grounds that the referee should not have ordered the shootout, since the Rangers goal in extra time in Lisbon gave them a lead of 3 away goals to 2. Rangers won the appeal and went on to win the Cup Winners' Cup that season.
In another example of the strangeness of the rule, the 2003 UEFA Champion's League Semi-finals drew Inter Milan and A.C. Milan. Both teams play their home games at San Siro, but one team had to be declared a home team and the other a visitor in the two matches.

★ ''First leg:'' A.C. Milan 0-0 Inter Milan

★ ''Second leg:'' Inter Milan 1–1 A.C. Milan
With an aggregate of 1-1, and both teams playing both games at their home field, A.C. Milan was declared the winner because they were the "away" side in the second game.

References

1. For example Regulations, 2006 FIFA World Cup
2. Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference: WOMEN’S SOCCER OPERATING CODE
3. Regulations of the UEFA Champions League 2006-07, Rule 4.05
4. Regulations of the UEFA Cup 2006-07, Rule 4.06
5. Regulations, 2006 FIFA World Cup, page 6: "In the league system the ranking in each group is determined as follows:
:(a) greater number of points obtained in all the group matches;
If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above criterion, their ranking shall be determined as follows:
:(b) greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
:(c) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
:(d) greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
:(e) goal difference in all the group matches;
:(f) greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
:(g) a play-off on neutral ground."
6. Oceania U-20 World Cup 1991 Qualifiers.