Penalty Shootout Rules: How the Tiebreaker Works Step by Step

A penalty shootout, properly called kicks from the penalty mark, is the procedure used to decide a knockout tie that remains level after normal time and, where the competition allows it, extra time. Crucially, it is not part of the match. The result is officially recorded as a draw, and the goals converted in the shootout do not count towards any player's or any team's scoring tallies. Its single purpose is to establish which side advances, and the Laws of the Game describe the sequence in precise, almost bureaucratic detail.

Before the first kick, the referee tosses a coin to choose the goal at which all the kicks will be taken; a second toss decides which team kicks first, and the winner of that toss may elect to go first or second. Only players who were on the field of play when the match ended are eligible, including anyone temporarily off the pitch with the referee's permission. Unused substitutes cannot take part. If one team finished with fewer players, the other must reduce to the same number before the shootout begins.

Each team takes five kicks, alternating, with a different player for every attempt. The shootout stops the moment one side cannot be caught: if a team leads by three after three rounds, the remaining kicks are pointless and are never taken. If the score is still level after five kicks each, the contest moves to sudden death, one round at a time, until one team scores and the other does not in the same round. Every eligible player, goalkeepers included, must take a kick before anyone may kick twice.

The individual kick has its own rules. The ball is stationary on the mark, the kicker is identified to the referee, and every other player waits inside the centre circle. The defending goalkeeper must have at least part of one foot on, above or behind the goal line when the ball is struck, and may not touch the posts, crossbar or net. The kicker may feint during the run-up but not once the run-up is complete. There are no rebounds: the attempt ends when the ball stops, goes out of play or the referee halts play.

Retakes are the most misunderstood element. If the goalkeeper commits an offence and the kick is missed, it is retaken; if the kicker or a team-mate encroaches and the ball goes in, it is retaken; if a defender encroaches and the kick is missed, it is also retaken. Shootouts were written into the Laws in the early 1970s to replace replays and the indignity of drawing lots. The 1994 World Cup final became the first to be settled this way, and European finals from the mid-1980s onwards have repeatedly turned on the same lottery.

Two enduring myths are worth dismantling. First, the shootout is not pure chance: goalkeepers are permitted to move along their line, kickers are studied and profiled, and the Panenka, the delicately chipped penalty made famous at the 1976 European Championship final, proved that nerve and imagination beat power. Second, a goalkeeper injured during the shootout may only be replaced if the team still has a substitution available; otherwise an outfield player takes the gloves. An experiment with an ABBA order was trialled and quietly shelved, leaving the classic alternating format in place.