Luton Outlaws - Independent Message Board for Luton Town FC

According to chatgpt:

This is one of those wonderfully cursed football thought experiments where the rules start to break down.

Short answer: **No, the games would not go on forever, and no, everyone would not eventually share the World Cup.** FIFA has tie-breakers specifically to prevent exactly this kind of infinite loop.

Here's how it would play out.

### Group stage: all games end 1–1, everyone gets 2 yellow cards

Suppose every team in the tournament:

* Draws every match 1–1
* Receives exactly 2 yellow cards in every match

Then every team in a group would have identical:

* Points
* Goal difference
* Goals scored
* Head-to-head record
* Fair play score (same yellow cards)

At that point FIFA uses **drawing of lots**—essentially a random selection conducted officially by tournament organizers.

So teams would literally advance by luck.

Imagine flipping a coin to decide who reaches the Round of 16.

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### Knockout stage: 1–1 forever, no missed penalties

Now things get even stranger.

If a knockout match ends:

* 1–1 after normal time,
* 1–1 after extra time,
* and **nobody ever misses a penalty**,

then the shootout becomes impossible to finish normally.

Penalty shootouts work by continuing into **sudden death** after the first five kicks each. The shootout only ends when one team scores and the other doesn't in the same round.

But if nobody ever misses:

* Team A scores.
* Team B scores.
* Repeat forever.

Theoretically, the shootout never ends.

There is **no rule in football saying "after 100 penalties we flip a coin."**

So under your impossible assumption of "nobody ever misses, ever," the match would indeed become infinite.

Players would eventually all have taken penalties:

* Goalkeepers
* Substitutes
* Coaches aren't allowed, but every eligible player would shoot.

After everyone has taken one, the order simply repeats.

So you'd get:

* Penalty #437: still 437–437
* Penalty #10,000: still 10,000–10,000
* Penalty #1,000,000: still level

The final would literally never end.

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### Would everyone share the World Cup?

No.

The tournament would get stuck before a winner could be declared.

For example, if the final reached this impossible eternal shootout:

* There would be no champion.
* FIFA would probably suspend or abandon the match.
* The rules do **not** currently provide for co-champions of the men's World Cup.

In reality, of course, someone eventually misses a penalty because humans get tired, goalkeepers save shots, or pressure wins.

Your scenario creates a true mathematical paradox in the rules: an event with **zero probability under your assumptions of ever ending**.

So the most accurate answer is:

* **Group stage:** decided by lots.
* **Knockout stage:** infinite penalty shootouts.
* **World Cup winner:** none unless FIFA invents an emergency rule on the spot.

Football wasn't designed for perfectly symmetric universes.