Max Pearson

The answer was often to draw lots.

It's hard to believe that games were settled through a piece of paper or tossing a coin.

Everyone could see it was unfair, but one man, Yosef Dagan, an Israeli football official, was convinced there was a better way.

At the Mexico Olympics in 1968, Dagan watched in dismay as his country Israel drew with Bulgaria, but were then cruelly eliminated after the drawing of lots.

Frankie remembers what happened.

To decide the game, there was a sombrero hat that you just have to pick a piece of paper out and if it is the right piece of paper, you go through to the next round.

The Gans' plan to bring in penalty shootouts was taken to FIFA, the governing body of world football, and eventually adopted on the 27th of June 1970.

I asked FIFA to clarify when penalty shootouts were first officially used, but they didn't seem to know.

So I nudged them.

Could it have been that Hull City game perhaps?

We can neither confirm nor deny that claim, they said, as our records don't stretch to domestic tournaments.

Well, we searched high and low for an earlier match, but nothing showed up.

There had been occasional experiments with penalties, but they weren't officially sanctioned.

As far as I'm concerned, the first time penalties were officially used in a professional game was on August 5th, 1970, at Hull City.

So six weeks after the FIFA decision, tied games could now be settled by a brand new dramatic climax.

It was a 7.30 kick-off.

It was a lovely warm evening, but when I got into the ground, I didn't have a good view.

I had to look between people's heads to be able to see anything, and I was really jealous of kids who had little stools to stand on.

I remember seeing Bobby Charlton running up and down the wing.

His face was really red.