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Here’s a question of SPOOOOOORT from Arj from Canterbury:
I’ve been watching a lot of the World Cup recently, and I don’t really get the point of the coin toss at the start of the match to decide which end the winner chooses to shoot from. Is there some tactical advantage to be gained from choosing one goal over another? In cricket, at least, the coin toss makes sense: bowl or bat. But in football, all that really changes is the direction you’re running in…
Maybe that’s not all, Arj. Maybe it’s so you can’t blame the pitch for anything that went wrong and put you at a disadvantage, because we all know how footballers love to whinge about the slightest thing. Maybe the sun is blinding at one end. Maybe you don’t want to start/finish the game with all the opposing team’s fans standing behind the goal flipping you off. Maybe the pitch is on a 15 degree gradient. Maybe half the pitch is cursed because it is laid on top of an old burial ground.
Help Arj out, readers: explain this in the comments. I know I could look it up, but I…can’t be arsed because it’s football.
Answer Me This! Podcast 
July 3, 2014 at 3:13 pm |
Im assuming that it is because, in the domestic game, chosing which way you play first half means you can choose to play towards your fans in the second half (most grounds have home ends & away ends). I think it probably doesnt matter in the world cup….but its tradition, innit. Mind you, lots of horrible things were tradition. Like fox hunting. And beating your slave.
July 3, 2014 at 6:55 pm |
They have to decide who attacks which end somehow, a coin toss is a just a random method of doing that