I'm not a big football fan, but it's hard to live outside the US and not be exposed to it. Part of football's unique character is how rare goals are. When a te

I'm not a big football fan, but it's hard to live outside the US and not be exposed to it. Part of football's unique character is how rare goals are. When a team scores a goal, it is a big occasion (GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL![1]). If you change that, you fundamentally change the game, a game that is the most watched, most popular sport in the world. Also, the assumption that the only purpose of a match is to pick the better team is probably wrong. An important additional factor, perhaps the most important factor, is to make the game exciting for the fans. Here, I think the unpredictability of goals helps. [1] When I lived in Panama, the announcers had a really funny ability to turn a goal eventually into a pitch for Goldstar Consumer Eclectronics -- "GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLDDDDDSSSSTTTAAARRRR!"