Yosef cursed. He had been stuck in Tel Aviv’s evening traffic and feared he would miss the beginning of a football match starting in ten minutes.
Nine minutes later he turned into his street and ran into the house. Everyone was waiting for him impatiently.
But no sooner had Yosef recovered than disaster struck. Shortly after kick-off, the favoured Bulgarians pushed the surprise team from Israel at the Olympic summer games of 1968, and after a few surprises, the match ended in a draw after 90 minutes of play.
“What now? You can’t have a draw in a quarter-final?” exclaimed his brother, but Yosef didn’t know the answer either. The referee also seemed confused. Suddenly, some officials brought a big sombrero and after some hesitation, both captains reached into the hat and took out a piece of paper. On that of Israel’s captain it stated only one word; OUT !
The Bulgarian captain had the luck of the draw on his side and Yosef started swearing again….
It took a while for Yosef, the secretary of the Israeli Football Association (IFA), to regain his composure. “We can draw against the Olympic champion right away. It saves all the effort,” he rumbled. Being eliminated in the quarter-final of an Olympic competition because of a lottery is painful he commented a few weeks later to his deputy chairman of the IFA. Both were preoccupied with their thoughts when Yosef suddenly remembered the first Swiss Watch Cup in 1962, where a tie was resolved by a penalty shoot-out. There was a short letter written to the world football association FIFA, which arrived in Zurich on 24 July 1969.
It had an amazing effect. As early as 20 February 1970, the responsible FIFA Committee approved the Israeli proposal. In the event of a draw outside of a group stage each team should have five penalties per team, taken by different players to decide the outcome. Only a few months later the new rules were adopted by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) on 27 June 1970 and these haven’t changed right up to today. And when the world celebrates a new world champion in football on 18 December 2022, it will also be thanks to the team effort and contribution of the two officials of the Israel Football Association.
Clearly rules and their observance are not only important in football. Today’s business life would be inconceivable without it, which is why the legislator regulates numerous important markets, including, of course, the Trust business.
As a professional trustee – regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA – CAREY would be honored to be in your team.
NOTE: This is an abridged version of the original. The original can be found on the Carey website. ARTICLES – Carey Zurich
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