Watch David Cameron Ask Angela Merkel To Ban Football Penalty Shootouts

Watch David Cameron Ask Angela Merkel To Ban Football Penalty Shootouts

David Cameron has jokingly asked Angela Merkel to agree to ban penalty shootouts - in order to make football matches between England and Germany fairer.

The prime minister was speaking at a press conference in Berlin with the German chancellor. Cameron has been on a whistle-stop tour of European capitals in an attempt to win support for a looser relationship between Britain and the EU.

However he earlier failed to secure support from Poland for his plans to restrict benefits for migrant workers. And yesterday he was was warned by France that his planned in/out referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union was "dangerous".

Amid the corruption scandal that has engulfed Fifa, Cameron was asked whether what action he would encourage the English FA to consider pulling out of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

He dodged that question, but said: "We should have no more penalty shootouts. In future we should just keep playing for as long as it takes so we level the playing field between Britain and Germany - the two greatest footballing nations on Earth."

In order to secure substantial changes to the way the European Union works, it is likely Cameron would need to reopen the union's treaties.

And Merkel threw Cameron a lifeline by telling reporters that it was not "impossible" for that to happen. "Wherever there is a desire there is also a way and this should be our guiding principle," she said.

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