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Penalty shootouts (officially referred to as kicks from the penalty mark) are a method sometimes used to decide which team progresses to the next stage of a tournament (or wins the tournament) following a draw in a game of association football. Kicks during a shootout are governed by different rules from penalty kicks, which are part of normal play during a match.
Overview
Shootouts are almost always used only in knockout (as opposed to league) games, to decide who will progress to the next stage of a tournament, or who will win it. Usually extra time has been played first. However, the Copa Libertadores has a penalty shootout immediately after the end of a two-legged tie that is level on aggregate, with no extra time played; since 2005, this takes place if there is no winner on away goals. In the late 1980s, a number of European football leagues, including Hungary, Yugoslavia and Norway, experimented with penalty shootouts immediately after drawn league matches, with the winner gaining one point more than the loser; this was soon abandoned. In the United States, Major League Soccer initially also had a shootout immediately following the end of regulation time, even during league matches. This has also since been abandoned.
Penalty shootouts do not follow the penalty kick law. However, they follow similar procedure to penalty kicks and are popularly referred to as "penalties". During a shootout, players other than the kicker and the defending goalkeeper must remain in the centre circle (other than the kicking team's goalkeeper, who stands on the junction of goal line and penalty area near to the assistant referee).
Goals scored during the shootout are not included in the final score, nor are they added to the goalscoring records of the players involved. Strictly speaking, kicks from the penalty mark do not result in a game winner; the game remains a draw and the result of the kicks is merely used to select a winner to progress to the next stage of the tournament (or win it in the case of the final). However, in popular usage a team is often said to have "won on penalties", and such games have their result recorded as (for example): "Team A 2–2 Team B a.e.t, Team B won 5–4 on penalties".
Procedure
The following is a summary of the procedure for kicks from the penalty mark:
- The team to take the first kick is decided by a coin toss.
- All players other than the kicker and the goalkeepers must remain in the field's centre circle (see above).
- Each kick is taken in the general manner of a penalty kick. Each kick is taken from the penalty mark, with the goal defended only by the opposing goalkeeper. The goalkeeper must remain between the goal-posts on his goal-line until the ball has been kicked, although he can jump in place, wave his arms or otherwise try to distract the shooter (this, however, is a rarely used tactic).
- Each kicker can kick the ball only once per attempt. If the ball is saved by the goalkeeper, the kicker cannot score from the rebound (unlike a normal penalty kick).
- Teams take turns to kick from the penalty mark in attempt to score a goal, until each has taken five kicks. However, if one side has scored more goals than the other could possibly reach with all of their remaining kicks, the shootout ends regardless of the number of kicks remaining.
- If at the end of these five rounds of kicks the teams have scored an equal number of goals, sudden death rounds of one kick each are used until one side scores and the other does not.
- Only players who were on the field at the end of play are allowed to take kicks; no substitutes can be used.
- No player is allowed to take a second kick from the penalty mark until all other players on his team (who have not received a red card) have taken a kick from the penalty mark (including the goalkeepers). However, if at the beginning of kicks from the penalty mark one side has more players on the field than the other, then the side with more players shall select an appropriate number of players to not take part. For example, if Team A has 11 players but Team B only has 10, then Team A will choose one player not to take part. Note that it is not allowed to deselect a goalkeeper from having to take part in kicking from the penalty mark: players deselected cannot play any part in the procedure.
History
Knockout ties were previously decided by drawing of lots, for example in 1968 when Italy reached the European Championship Final against the USSR.
The penalty shootout is usually credited as the invention of former referee Karl Wald, from Frankfurt-am-Main *. When proposed in 1970, the Bavarian football association attempted to block the suggestion, and it was only when the majority of delegates said they were in favour that the officials gave their backing.
Shortly afterwards, the German football association followed suit and UEFA and FIFA also accepted the proposal*.
Israeli Yosef Dagan is also claimed by some to have invented the method, after the Israeli national football team was eliminated from the 1968 Summer Olympics semi-finals due to a coin toss.
Initially, teams did not alternate their kicks; one side kicked five times, followed by the other. The shootout ended as soon as the winner became obvious. In case of a draw, both teams had a second round of five kicks each until a winner was decided. Alternation was introduced by 1976.
In England, the first ever penalty shootout took place in 1970 between Hull City and Manchester United during the Watney Cup, and was won by Manchester United. The first footballer to take a kick was George Best, and the first to miss was Denis Law.
The first major international tournament to be decided by a penalty shootout was the Euro 76 final between Czechoslovakia and West Germany. Czechoslovakia won 5–3, and the deciding kick was converted by Antonín Panenka with a "chip" after Uli Hoeneß had put the previous kick over the crossbar.
The finals of three major FIFA competitions have gone to penalty shootouts. Two of these took place in the same stadium, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, USA.
- In the 1994 World Cup, Brazil and Italy ended extra time scoreless. Brazil went on to win the shootout 3–2. *
- Like the 1994 final, the 1999 Women's World Cup final between the USA and China was scoreless after extra time. The United States team won the shootout 5–4, with the winning shot by Brandi Chastain punctuated by her famous shirt-stripping moment. *
- The 2006 World Cup Final also went to a penalty shootout and was won by Italy 5-3 against France in Berlin. *
Goalkeepers have been known to win shootouts by their kicking; for example, in a Euro 2004 quarterfinal, Portugal goalkeeper Ricardo Pereira saved a kick (without gloves) from England's Darius Vassell, and immediately followed by scoring the winning shot. * Another example is Vélez Sársfield's José Luis Chilavert in the Copa Libertadores 1994 finals.
In 2005, a new British record was established when a shootout between Tunbridge Wells and Littlehampton involved 40 kicks being taken. *
In the FA Cup penalty kicks have been used to decide the winner since 1995 (after a drawn replay and extra time), and replaced a series of replays that in the past led to fixture disruption, especially disliked by the top clubs. A penalty shooutout was first used in the 2005 final, when Arsenal beat Manchester United 5-4. The following year, Liverpool beat West Ham United in the FA Cup final's second ever penalty shootout. [http://www.thefa.com/TheFACup/TheFACup/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2006/05/FACF06_MatchReport.htm
The Community Shield final was also settled using penalties, following the normal 90 minutes of play, but no extra time. In 2003, Manchester United beat Arsenal in a penalty shootout to win the Community Shield.
In 2005, a place in the World Cup was directly determined by a penalty shootout for the first time. The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying playoff between Australia and Uruguay ended 1–1 on aggregate, with Uruguay winning the first leg 1–0 at home and Australia winning the second at home by the same score. A scoreless 30 minutes of extra time was followed by a shootout, which Australia won 4–2.
Statistics
Below are the overall penalty shootout records of countries at major tournaments. The table is ordered by the number of shootouts won, followed by the success rate.
| Country | World Cup (Won-Lost) | Euro (Won-Lost) | Copa América (Won-Lost) | Total (Won-Lost) | % Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4-0 | 1-1 | - | 5-1 | 83% | |
| 3-1 | - | 2-2 | 5-3 | 63% | |
| 2-1 | - | 3-2 | 5-3 | 63% | |
| 2-2 | 1-1 | - | 3-3 | 50% | |
| - | - | 3-3 | 3-3 | 50% | |
| 1-0 | 1-0 | - | 2-0 | 100% | |
| - | 2-0 | - | 2-0 | 100% | |
| - | - | 2-1 | 2-1 | 67% | |
| 0-2 | - | 2-1 | 2-3 | 40% | |
| 1-2 | 1-1 | - | 2-3 | 40% | |
| 1-3 | 1-1 | - | 2-4 | 33% | |
| 1-0 | - | - | 1-0 | 100% | |
| 1-0 | - | - | 1-0 | 100% | |
| - | 1-0 | - | 1-0 | 100% | |
| - | - | 1-0 | 1-0 | 100% | |
| 1-0 | - | - | 1-0 | 100% | |
| 1-0 | - | - | 1-0 | 100% | |
| - | - | 1-0 | 1-0 | 100% | |
| - | 1-1 | - | 1-1 | 50% | |
| 1-1 | - | - | 1-1 | 50% | |
| 1-0 | 0-1 | - | 1-1 | 50% | |
| 0-1 | 1-3 | - | 1-4 | 20% | |
| 0-3 | 1-2 | - | 1-5 | 17% | |
| - | - | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0% | |
| - | - | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0% | |
| - | - | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0% | |
| 0-1 | - | - | 0-1 | 0% | |
| 0-1 | - | - | 0-1 | 0% | |
| - | - | 0-2 | 0-2 | 0% | |
| 0-2 | - | - | 0-2 | 0% |
Criticisms and alternatives
Penalty shootouts have been seen as variously thrilling and as an unsatisfactory way to decide a football match. Various alternatives have been proposed.
Golden goal and silver goal methods to encourage a result without resort to penalties have been tried; however, IFAB discontinued their use in 2004. These were not seen as a success.
In the event of a draw, current alternatives to penalty shootouts include replaying (where possible) a match that has ended in a tie (as still occurs in the quarter-finals and earlier rounds of the English FA Cup).
Other suggestions have included using elements of game play such as most shots on goal, most corner kicks awarded, fewest cautions and sendings-off, or having ongoing extra time with teams compelled to remove players at progressive intervals *. These proposals have not been authorised by IFAB.
American experiments
The North American Soccer League in the 1970s and then Major League Soccer in 1990s experimented with a variation of the shootout procedure. A shootout consisted of a player starting with the ball 35 yards from the goal and having five seconds to try and score a goal, with as many touches as he wished in that time span. This procedure is similar to that used in an ice hockey penalty shot. As with a standard shootout, this variation used a best-of-five-kicks model, and if the score was still level, the tiebreaker would head to an extra round of one attempt per team. MLS abandoned this experiment in 2000.
See also
- Penalty shootout —information on penalty shootouts in other sports.
Bibliography
- On Penalties by Andrew Anthony (ISBN 022406116X)
External links
"Penalty shootout (football)"