Penalty Kick Rules, Explained

A penalty is a free shot from twelve yards with only the goalkeeper to beat, and almost every argument about one comes down to three things: where the goalkeeper's feet were, who came into the box early, and what the taker did in the run-up. The Laws of the Game have an answer for each, and most of them are more forgiving than people assume.

This guide is about penalties awarded during play. A shootout after a draw runs on different rules, and those are covered in the extra time and penalty shootouts guide.

The set-up

Ball	Stationary, part of it touching or overhanging the penalty mark
Goalkeeper	On the goal line, facing the kicker, between the posts
Everyone else	At least 9.15m from the mark, behind it, outside the penalty area
Kicker	Identified before the kick is taken

That last one is easy to overlook. The taker has to be identified. A teammate cannot come sprinting in to hit it instead at the last moment, and if one does, the kick is retaken.

The goalkeeper's line

This is where the modern arguments live, and it is worth being precise about what the Law says.

At the moment the ball is kicked, the goalkeeper must have at least part of one foot touching, in line with, or behind, the goal line. Not both feet. Not planted. Part of one foot, on or behind the line.

That wording is deliberately generous. A goalkeeper is allowed to move along the line, allowed to lean, allowed to have one foot well in front of the other. What they cannot do is leave the line entirely before contact, which is what a keeper is doing when they take a step forward to close the angle.

They also cannot "behave in a way that unfairly distracts the kicker." Standing tall, waving arms and shouting is all within normal limits. Walking towards the spot to talk to the taker, touching the ball, or delaying the restart is not.

If the goalkeeper offends and the penalty is saved or missed, it is retaken. If the goalkeeper offends and the ball goes in, the goal stands. There is no reason to punish a team for an offence that did not cost them anything.

Encroachment, and why the two sides are treated differently

Watch any penalty in slow motion and you will see players stepping into the area before the ball is struck. Most of the time nothing happens, and that is not referees being lax. It is the Law working as written.

A defender coming in early forces a retake only if the encroachment clearly impacted the kicker, or if the defender played the ball or challenged an opponent and prevented a goal-scoring opportunity. A defender who drifts two yards in and takes no part in what follows has affected nothing, and the Law does not pretend otherwise.

An attacker coming in early is punished only if the encroachment clearly impacted the goalkeeper, or if the player played the ball or challenged an opponent and then scored, attempted to score or created a chance. This is the rule behind the goal you occasionally see chalked off after a rebound: the striker who followed in early and buried the loose ball was the one who came in too soon.

The principle underneath both is the same, and it is a sensible one. Early entry is only an offence when it made a difference.

When both sides offend at the same moment, the kick is retaken, unless one of the offences was more serious.

Feinting: allowed, then not allowed

The run-up is where takers are given room, and then have it taken away at a very specific point.

During the run-up, feinting is permitted. Stutter steps, a hesitation, a change of rhythm — all legal, all long-established, and all part of how modern penalties are taken.

Once the run-up is complete, feinting to kick is not permitted. Arriving at the ball, stopping, waiting for the goalkeeper to commit and then rolling it in is an offence. The taker is cautioned and the defending team gets an indirect free kick, even if the ball ended up in the net.

The line between the two is the end of the run-up. You may deceive the goalkeeper on the way to the ball. You may not stand over it and wait him out.

The double touch

A small rule that decides occasional matches. The kicker must not play the ball again until it has touched another player.

The usual scenario is a penalty that comes back off the post and the taker, following in, tucks away the rebound. That is not a goal. The defending team gets an indirect free kick. If the second touch was with the hand or arm, it is a direct free kick instead.

A rebound off the goalkeeper is different. The goalkeeper is another player, so the taker is free to score from that.

When a penalty is retaken

Pulling the situations together:

• The goalkeeper offends and the penalty does not result in a goal.
• A defender encroaches with clear impact on the kicker, or prevents a goal.
• Both teams offend simultaneously, unless one offence is more serious.
• A player other than the identified kicker takes the kick.

Why VAR made all of this louder

None of these rules are new, but frame-by-frame replay changed how visible they are. A goalkeeper half a boot off the line was invisible at full speed for a century, and is now a still image on a monitor.

The current wording, with its "part of one foot" allowance and its insistence that encroachment must have impacted someone, is a direct response to that. It is an attempt to keep the technology from turning every penalty into a millimetre audit.

For how the review process itself works and which decisions the video officials may check, see the VAR guide. For handball in the box, which is what produces a large share of penalties in the first place, the handball rule guide covers where the arm legally ends.