World Cup ‘anomaly’
The Soccer or football World Cup 2026 is now in full-swing. In part, this article comments about a peculiar way of deciding the champion of the World Cup by penalty shootouts, if in the World Cup final, after extra time, the teams are tied (in terms of goals). Then the penalty shootouts from each team will decide who is the champion. I want to make clear that in the knock-out rounds, quarter-finals and semi-finals of the World Cup if the teams are tied after extra time, then penalty shoot outs are the only way to determine which team proceed to the next round. But to determine the world champion if the final of the World Cup by penalty shoot outs at the end of extra time is not that felicitous, I opine. This writer knows FIFA will not review far less revise; the world champions being decided by penalties (if after extra time there is no winner).
‘Me thinks’ it was not always the case that the World Cup champions were to decide by penalty shots if the goals are tied in the World Cup finals (finals, only). The writer recalls watching the World Cup 1982 finals between Italy and West Germany live. I watched it on American television. I recall the commentator stating that IF the 1982 final between Italy and West Germany were tied after extra time, THEN there would be a replay. IF such a replay were to be made, an American television network (as there was less interest in what is called soccer then in the United States) would not be live telecast again. I must state that this is what I recall. If my recall is correct, then up until 1982 (or perhaps only in 1982) there would not have been a penalty shootout IF Italy and West Germany were tied at the end of extra time in the 1982 World Cup final. As it was, Italy beat Germany 3-1 in regulation time.
From 1930 to 2026 there have been have been 23 World Cup competitions (1930, 1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022, 2026). From 1930 to 1990, in 14 World Cup finals the results have been decided in full-time (after 90 minutes of play plus injury time) or extra-time (extra 30 minutes of play plus injury time). For 14 consecutive World Cup finals, the championship was determined at the latest (so to speak) at the end of extra-time. That ‘streak’ ended in 1994 when Brazil and Italy were tied (0-0) at the end of extra-time and the champion was determined by penalty shoot-outs where Brazil won.
Again, just 12 years later in the World Cup finals between France and Italy in 2006 the winner had to be decided by penalty shoot-outs, where Italy won. Fast forward to 2022- the previous World Cup. As Argentina and France were tied in the final at the end of extra time (again), the winner had to be decided by penalty kicks again. Consider this: in 14 World Cup finals (between 1930 and 1990) the winner or the champion was decided (at the latest) by the end of extra time. From 1994 to 2022 in 8 World Cup finals, the champion has been decided by penalty kicks in three (3) final matches. Query or curiosity: what are the statistical, sports, indeed football-related anomalies that led to this peculiar, anomalous situation?
Above, I stated that a replay of the final ONLY if the teams were tied at the end of extra-time, is an option. I understand that perhaps in the 1970s, at least one European club final (not European Cup finals) had replayed their championship match after being tied (after extra time). And if my recollection is correct and if the commentator who narrated the 1982 World Cup final stated correctly, at least in 1982, that if there be a tie after extra-time, then the 1982 final will be replayed. The writer realizes that replaying the World Cup final creates lots of financial and logistical issues, if not problems.
Another alternative is if in the finals the scores are tied after extra-time is to awards both teams as joint champions. In Burma in the 1960s in the yearly states and division championships there was at one occasion when the teams were tied after extra time. In that particular match the two teams were awarded as joint champions.
Again, the ‘joint champion’ proposal can create further anomalies. The teams may not go all the way and put all their efforts since they would know that they can be joint champions if they tie (in that case there would be no penalty kicks after extra time). The current football or soccer set-up is ‘winner-takes-all’, not by hook or by crook but by the lottery indeed the inanity of penalty kicks. And it is unlikely the ‘lottery’ of penalty kicks would go away. Indeed, it would stay.
The writer’s wish which I did express on social media in 2022, is that the 2022 World Cup final would not be decided by penalty kicks. That wish was not fulfilled in 2022 when Argentina beat France through penalty kicks. Would history repeat itself, and the 2026 World Cup final be decided by penalties, making it two consecutive final matches being decided by penalty kicks? If that were to occur it would have been unprecedented in the history of the World Cup.
Excursus: The anomaly of selecting President of the United States through the Electoral College system
The United States does not elect its presidents by popular vote. According to the United States Constitution adopted in in 1787 the president is elected by a group of electors called the Electoral College. Each state has several electors assigned to elect the president. In all but one or two states in the United States the winner of the respective state’s popular vote – even if the win is by several hundred votes where about five million voted – ‘winner takes all’ that particular state’s electoral votes.
Currently, there are 538 electoral votes, and the presidential candidate who obtains a minimum of 270 electoral votes is ‘selected’ by the Electoral College as president of the United States. In the 1876 and 1888 presidenBy Myint Zan tial elections, the winner of the popular vote (both Democrats) did not become president even though they won the plurality of the popular votes. Republican candidates who ran for president won (by 1 electoral vote) in 1876. In 1888, the presidential candidate from the Republican party received fewer popular votes than the Democratic candidate, but he won by a significant plurality of electoral votes.
Fast forward 112 years to the year 1996. The United States had 26 (twenty-six) quadrennial presidential elections from 1892 to 1996. In all the 26 presidential elections the winner of the popular vote also won the electoral vote and thus became president. In the year 2000, that ‘streak’ ended. George W Bush (Bush Jr) (born 6 July 1946) received about 537,000 popular votes less than Albert A Gore (born 31 March 1948) but Bush Jr received 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 269 and thus became president.
In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton (born 26 October 1947) received nearly 2.8
million more votes than Donald J Trump (born 14 June 1946) but lost the electoral vote. Hillary narrowly lost the popular vote (about 77,700 votes) in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, but under the ‘ winner takes all’ rule (of the electoral votes of a state), Trump won all the electoral votes in those swing states and became president.
To briefly juxtapose with the World Cup anomaly. From 1930 to 1990 in a total of 13 World Cup finals there was no need to decide the champion through penalty kicks after extra-time. But from 1994 to 2022, in eight World Cup finals, three finals had to be decided by penalty kicks after extra-time!
And in 26 (twenty-six) US presidential elections (from 1892 to 1996) the winner of the popular vote also won the electoral votes and became president. But from 2000 to 2024, there were seven presidential elections, and in two of them, in 2000 and 2016, the winner of the popular vote did not win the electoral vote and failed to become president. At the risk of stating that I am compelling apples and oranges (but not apples and Apple computers) there seems, nay there is (yours truly is paraphrasing Shakespeare’s phrase ‘seems Madam, nay it is’ from Hamlet) a similarity in trend between the World Cup anomaly and Electoral vote anomaly which was non-existent in World Cup for 60 years (from 1930 to 1990) and Electoral votes anomaly which did not occur in US presidential elections for 108 years (from 1892 to 1996).
But from 1994 to 2022, the streak of no need for post extra-time penalties in the World Cup was broken three times (1994, 2006, 2022). Likewise, the 108- year streak of the winner of the popular vote winning the electoral vote and the presidency was broken twice (in the 2000 and 2016 US presidential elections).
Above, I queried whether in the current 2026 World Cup the champion will be decided by penalty kicks in the final, at the end of the extra time, or not. In the 2028 scheduled presidential elections, will a Republican candidate receive fewer popular votes than its Democratic opponent but win the electoral votes and thus -again- the presidency? IF the 2026 World Cup champion were to be decided by penalty kicks and IF a Republican were to receive less in popular votes but still win the presidency in 2028, the two anomalies of World Cup and Electoral vote in the United States would be a ‘double whammy’ for this writer and almost certainly for tens of millions, including many in the United States, and worldwide.
It should be mentioned that in 1969 the United States House of Representatives, the lower House in Congress, passed a draft Bill to abolish the Electoral College and to replace it with direct election of the president. If a presidential candidate received less than 40 per cent of the vote, there would be a run-off election. The Bill was passed by a lop-sided majority of 338 to 70 votes in the US House of Representatives, but it failed to even be put to the vote in the US Senate due to the filibuster from conservative Senators and Senators from small states. (The state of Wyoming, with a population less than 590,000, has two Senators and three electoral votes, and California, with a population of more than 39 million, has only two Senators and 54 electoral votes). Since ‘selecting’ the president by the Electoral College is stated in the US Constitution, even if the Bill passes the Senate (it didn’t), to affect a Constitutional amendment 2/3 of the 50 state legislatures have to approve the Bill passed by Congress within five to seven years. The extreme difficulty of abolishing or even reforming the Electoral College should be evident. Several years ago, I posted on social media as to which event is likely to occur first: the abolition of the Electoral College in the United States or a woman landing on the planet Mars (not on the Moon). One person wrote ‘Mars’ (first). They may well be right.
An Augustinian ‘take’ on the result of the 2026 World Cup final
Enmeshed as I am and millions of football aficionados are in the ‘tyranny of the here and the now’, let’s revert to the 2026 World Cup.
In his book The Night is Large, Martin Gardner (21 October 1914-22 May 2010) wrote that the Christian theologian St. Augustine (13 November 354-28 August 430) postulated that ‘God stood above Time and God sees/saw/ will see at the same time, the past, the present and the future’. (To paraphrase Shakespeare again in King Lear) ‘if that be the truth, let the truth be proven thus. Does the Augustinian Deity know, as I write on 12 noon Universal Time Coordinate (UTC) on 20 June 2026, the result of the 2026 World Cup final, which is scheduled for 19 July 2026? Does he know not only the results but also which team will score first, how many goals, who will be the players who score the goals and in what minutes, how many penalties and how many corners during regulation time? Will there be an extra-time? Will the goals be tied, either zero-zero or an equal number of goals, even after extra time? Will there be penalty kicks to determine the champion of the World Cup 2026? What would be the result of the penalty kicks (should the 2026 World Cup final result have to be determined by penalty kicks)…?
In Augustine’s time in the 4th and 5th centuries Common Era, the invention of the game of football was more than 15 centuries away in the future. Augustine, if he were to ‘come back’, would have to be explained in Latin the intricacies of the game of football and the World Cup first. Even then, if Augustine were to ask no later than, say, 21 June 2026 or before the knock-out rounds start, the above query would be the ‘reborn’ or ‘revived’ Augustine reply that ‘I do not know, but my God knows …
#GlobalNewLightOfMyanmar