The away goals rule was for decades a double-edged sword that could turn two-legged ties in European club football on their head. UEFA introduced it in 1965 and abolished it in all its club competitions from the 2021-22 season, so today a tie that is level on aggregate goes to extra time and, if needed, penalties.

From Barcelona icon Andrés Iniesta’s 93rd-minute equaliser at Stamford Bridge in the 2008-09 Champions League semi-final to Lucas Moura’s stoppage-time hat-trick goal in Amsterdam in the 2018-19 semi-final, the away goals rule produced some of the most famous nights in European football.

WHAT A FINISH. UNBELIEVABLE!

Lucas Moura #UCL | @SpursOfficial

UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague), May 13, 2019

On 24 June 2021 the UEFA Executive Committee voted to remove the rule from every UEFA club competition, starting with the qualifying rounds of 2021-22. The Champions League, Europa League and the new Conference League have all been played without it since.

What was the away goals rule?

The away goals rule was a tie-breaker for two-legged knockout ties, where each team plays once at home and once away. If the aggregate score was level after both legs, the team that had scored more goals away from home went through. Only if away goals were also level did the tie go to extra time and penalties.

In UEFA competitions the rule also applied in extra time: an away goal scored in extra time of the second leg still counted double if the aggregate stayed level.

Here are a few examples of how the away goals rule worked:

Example 1:

First Leg: Team A (home) 1-2 Team B (away)

Second Leg: Team B (home) 0-1 Team A (away)

The aggregate score is level (2-2). Team B scored two away goals and Team A one, so Team B went through on away goals.

Example 2:

First Leg: Team A (home) 2-3 Team B (away)

Second Leg: Team B (home) 0-1 Team A (away)

The aggregate score is level (3-3), but Team B scored three goals away from home to Team A’s one. Team B went through.

Example 3:

First Leg: Team A (home) 1-0 Team B (away)

Second Leg: Team B (home) 2-1 Team A (away)

The aggregate score is level (2-2). Team A scored one away goal in the second leg; Team B scored none away from home in the first leg. Team A went through.

Example 4 (extra time):

First Leg: Team A (home) 1-0 Team B (away)

Second Leg: Team B (home) 1-0 Team A (away) [after 90 minutes]

Second Leg: Team B (home) 2-1 Team A (away) [after extra time]

After 90 minutes of the second leg the aggregate is 1-1 and neither side has an away goal, so the tie goes to extra time. Both teams score in extra time, making it 2-2 on aggregate. Team A’s extra-time goal was scored away from home, so Team A went through on away goals, and Team B had to score twice in extra time just to stay level. This is the unfairness UEFA pointed to when it scrapped the rule.

When was the away goals rule introduced?

The away goals rule was first used in the 1965-66 European Cup Winners’ Cup. The Fairs Cup adopted it in 1966-67, and the European Cup (now the Champions League) brought it in round by round between 1967-68 and 1970-71.

Before it, a tie that was level on aggregate went to a play-off at a neutral ground, and if that was drawn too, to the toss of a coin. In the 1964-65 European Cup, Liverpool reached the semi-finals over 1. FC Köln that way: 0-0 in Cologne, 0-0 at Anfield and 2-2 in a play-off in Rotterdam, after which Bill Shankly’s side won the coin toss.

The first team to go through on away goals was Budapest Honvéd, against Dukla Prague in the second round of the 1965-66 Cup Winners’ Cup. Honvéd won the first leg 3-2 in Prague but lost the return 2-1 at home. The aggregate was 4-4, and Honvéd went through with three away goals to Dukla’s two.

Why was the away goals rule abolished?

The UEFA Executive Committee approved the abolition on 24 June 2021, on the recommendation of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee and the UEFA Women’s Football Committee. It covers all UEFA club competitions, for men, women and youth teams, from the qualifying phases of 2021-22 onwards.

UEFA’s main argument was that home advantage had shrunk. “Statistics from the mid-1970s until now show a clear trend of continuous reduction in the gap between the number of home/away wins (from 61%/19% to 47%/30%) and the average number of goals per match scored at home/away (from 2.02/0.95 to 1.58/1.15) in men’s competitions,” UEFA said in its announcement.

In the UEFA Women’s Champions League, UEFA added, average goals per game had stayed very steady since 2009-10, at 1.92 for home teams and 1.6 for away teams.

“The away goals rule has been an intrinsic part of UEFA competitions since it was introduced in 1965. However, the question of its abolition has been debated at various UEFA meetings over the last few years,” said UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin.

“The impact of the rule now runs counter to its original purpose as, in fact, it now dissuades home teams – especially in first legs – from attacking, because they fear conceding a goal that would give their opponents a crucial advantage. There is also criticism of the unfairness, especially in extra time, of obliging the home team to score twice when the away team has scored,” Čeferin added.

“It is fair to say that home advantage is nowadays no longer as significant as it once was,” he concluded.

Former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger had argued the same for years. After Arsenal went out to Bayern Munich on away goals in 2012-13, he asked UEFA to scrap the rule. “Sometimes I think there is a counter-effect as teams play at home not to concede goals,” he said in December 2013.

How are ties decided now if scores are level on aggregate?

If two teams score the same number of goals over the two legs, the second leg goes to two 15-minute periods of extra time. Away goals carry no extra weight at any point.

If the teams are still level after extra time, the tie is settled by a penalty shoot-out.

Featured photo: AFP / Andrew Yates