Managing the biggest risk faced by the England World Cup football team

Mention “penalty shoot-out” and a generation of past England players cringe. This year’s crop overcame ‘ghosts of World cup past’ with sudden-death victory against Columbia. Penalty success was not by chance. Rather, it was the result of a carefully crafted and executed risk management strategy.

To the casual observer, success at penalty shoot-outs are a result of chance or plain luck on the day. For years in England, this myth has been perpetuated and engrained into the psyche of every England football fan. Understandably so, since England went out in 1996 on penalties, as they did at the World Cups in 1990, 1998 and 2006, and European Championships in 2004 and 2012. No country has a worse record than them in shoot-outs.

So, what changed in 2018? Well, the Football Association finally recognised their team’s serial failing had become a systemic risk to success and took a new approach to an old problem. They carried out detailed analysis and subjected players to psychometric testing to help select who would take penalties. Players were listed in order from 1 to 23 in which penalties would be taken. Amongst key findings were that England tended to take their penalties quicker than other teams and it was noticeable how players walked more slowly to the penalty spot against Columbia than previously. Also, practising calmness, individual techniques, processes and taking a collective approach to the foreseeable pressure cooker situation were all key risk plans adopted.

Penalty shoot-outs in knock-out stages are expected and when this risk event occurred England was prepared to tackle it 100%. It took a long time for the Football Association to plan for the biggest risk that has plagued the England team on the world stage for a generation – that is, the failure to perform at a penalty shoot-out. Now that ‘monkey is off their back’, maybe they can go on and win the World Cup, although hopefully not in a penalty shoot-out!