Blatter worried about goals

Soccerway - 7 July 2006 08:05

Germany's Philipp Lahm (C) celebrates scoring his team's first goal against Costa Rica with team-mate Michael Ballack (L)

BERLIN, July 7 (SW) - FIFA President Sepp Blatter is worried that the 2006 World Cup finals could be the lowest-scoring tournament ever.

Just 2.27 goals have been scored per average match in the month-long tournament so far, just a hair above the 2.21 low achieved in 1990. If no matches are scored in Saturday’s third-place match and Sunday’s final, then the average would dip below the 1990 trough.

The 2006 World Cup finals follow what many fans and commentators feel was an overly defensive Euro 2004 in which a negative Greece was crowned European champions.

Blatter wants to “make football more attractive.”

"The football isn't that bad, but there aren't enough goals - and when there are too few goals, the public isn't very enthusiastic," Blatter told the German news agency DPA.

"The essence of the game is goals."

Blatter plans to organize a committee which will ponder the riddle of how to bring more goals back into the game.

"We will set up a large symposium with the 32 World Cup coaches, the referees, the doctors and the technical study group of the World Cup," Blatter said.

"We want to hear what they have to say about what we can do to make football more attractive again."

Earlier in the week, Ligue 1, the lowest scoring of the five major European domestic competitions, instituted a cash bonus intended to reward clubs for scoring goals.