The Penalty Story between FC Lisse and HSV Hoek: Justified or Unjustified Winners?

Mid-Holland District Court, 6 October 2017, ECLI:NL:RBMNE:2017:5226

Date of the decision: 2017-10-06

A beautiful day for the players of amateur club FC Lisse: on 20 September 2017, they defeated another amateur club, HSV Hoek, after a penalty shoot-out. Or not…? Read below to find out what happened between FC Lisse, HSV Hoek and the Dutch Football Association (KNVB).

The facts and circumstances

On 20 September 2017, FC Lisse played in the first round of the KNVB Cup Tournament against HSV Hoek. The winner of this match would qualify for the second round of the Cup. After 90 minutes, the score was 1-1, following which the match went to extra time. Within this extra time both teams scored one goal, so after the extension the score was 2-2. Therefore, the referee proceeded to penalty shoot-outs in accordance with Article 9 of the Regulations of the Cup. However, the referee decided to let the players take the penalties according to the ABBA-system, instead of the default ABAB-system. The former system implies that club A takes the first penalty, club B takes the next two penalties, after which club A takes the next two penalties, etc. (comparable to the tie-break system in tennis), rather than both teams taking penalties alternately as was customary in football until recently.

FC Lisse took the...

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