Penalty shootout in football: Rules and its history at the FIFA World Cup

Exciting for neutrals yet dreaded for players, coaches and fans, the penalty shootout has been an intrinsic part of knockout tournament football, like the FIFA World Cup, since the 1970s.

Here’s all you need to know about penalty shootout rules and its history.

Penalty shootout history

While draws were acceptable in league games, in tournaments, like the FIFA World Cup, establishing a definite winner in the knockout stages is essential.

Over the years, several methods of breaking ties like replaying drawn matches, extra time and the away goals rule in two-legged knockout fixtures were incorporated into football.

However, none of these guaranteed a winner. Replaying drawn matches again and again till a winner was found was also not a viable solution.

Until the 1970s, there were no definitive rules in football about how to determine a winner if none of the above tie-break methods produced one.

For the sake of convenience, drawing lots or a coin toss was used to determine a victor. Famously, one of the semi-finals of the 1968 Euros was determined by a coin toss, which saw eventual champions Italy progress after playing out a goalless draw against the Soviet Union.

The Israel vs Bulgaria quarter-finals in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico is another example. After a 1-1 draw, Bulgaria progressed to the semi-finals after drawing lots. The match, in particular, paved the way for penalty shootouts in football.

Joseph Dagan, a former Israeli sports journalist who later served as the Israel Football Association (IFA) general secretary, was upset at the way his team was knocked out and proposed a new and definitive tie-breaking method, the precursor to the modern-day penalty shootout. He took cues from the unofficial tie-breakers which were used in several domestic club competitions, including the Coppa Italia in the late 1950s, to draw up the rules.

With Michael Almog, who later served as the IFA president, and Koe Ewe Teik, a member of the referee's committee from the Malaysian FA, backing Dagan’s proposal, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), football’s official law-making body, officially adopted penalty shootout in the game in 1970.

Joseph Dagan is credited as the pioneer of the modern-day penalty shootout.

Penalty shootout vs penalty kicks

To understand penalty shootouts, it’s essential to know what penalty kicks are.

During a football match, when a defending team commits a foul or a handball inside its own penalty box, the opposition side is awarded with a penalty or penalty kick.

During a penalty kick, any one player from the team which won the penalty places the ball on the penalty spot, a circular mark 11m away from the centre of the goal. The player then tries to score a goal with only the opposition goalkeeper allowed to defend the goal.

The 1v1 situation is advantageous to the player taking the penalty kick also called the spotkick.

During a penalty kick, the goalkeeper must have at least one foot touching the goal line, or behind it, the moment the penalty taker kicks the ball. Failure to comply results in the penalty kick being retaken. This rule was added in 2019 and before that, there were no restrictions on the goalies from coming off their line early.

Additionally, a ball must be completely still before the penalty kick is taken.

Penalty shootouts take the rules of penalty kicks as a base to establish a tie-breaking method.

When does a penalty shootout happen?

In a typical knockout football match, if the two teams are tied after the regulation 90 minutes they play extra time - two halves of 15 minutes. If the contest is still undecided after 120 minutes of play, the penalty shootout comes into effect.

Penalty shootout rules

A penalty shootout starts with two coin tosses - the first to determine the side of the field where the kicks will be taken from and the second to determine which team takes the first kick of the penalty shootout.

Before a penalty shootout starts, each team selects five players to take penalty kicks. Penalty shootouts where teams take penalty kicks alternatively is known as the ABAB system and is the most commonly used in big events like World Cups and Euros.

In certain domestic-level competitions, the ABBA penalty shootout system, where teams take two penalties in a row after a single opening spot kick, has been experimented with. However, the system hasn’t been used in top-tier competitions yet.

Only players who were on the pitch during the final whistle of the second half of extra time can take part in the penalty shootout. Even the goalkeeper can take penalty kicks.

If a team takes an unassailable lead during the initial series of five kicks, it wins the match. However, if the teams are still level after the five kicks, the sudden death phase of the penalty shootout kicks in.

In sudden death, if a team scores in one of the rounds but the other one misses, the match ends and the scoring team wins the shootout. The sudden death continues until a winner is determined.

Teams cannot send a player to take a second penalty during a shootout until all of their players on the pitch, including the goalkeeper, have taken at least one kick.

Penalty shootouts are considered separate to match results and are used only to determine which team progresses in the competition. Also, penalty shootout goals do not count towards a player’s or the team’s tally.

Penalty shootout in FIFA World Cup: Records and stats

Though the penalty shootout was adopted by FIFA in 1970, it took time to be implemented in the FIFA World Cup.

After trial runs in domestic leagues, the 1976 European Championship was the first major international tournament which was decided through a penalty shootout, as Czechoslovakia beat West Germany 5-3 on penalties after playing out a 2-2 draw.

In 1977, the penalty shootout was used for the first time in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match. Tunisia hosted Morocco in the first round of the CAF (African) qualifiers and won on penalties after extra time.

FIFA adopted the penalty shootout rule for the 1978 World Cup held in Argentina, but it was not required in that edition.

The first time that a penalty shootout decided a World Cup match was at the 1982 edition held in Spain. Finalists West Germany edged out France 5-4 in the shootout after their semi-final clash was tied at 3-3 after extra time.

Incidentally, 12 penalty kicks were taken in the Germany vs France shootout in 1982, which makes it the joint-longest penalty shootout in World Cup history alongside Sweden’s 5-4 shootout win over Romania in the quarter-finals of USA 1994.

West Germany, incidentally, were a part of the shortest penalty shootout, only four kicks long, in the FIFA World Cup as well. The Germans beat Mexico 3-1 in the 1986 quarter-finals.

A total of 35 FIFA World Cup matches have been decided through penalties to date, including the 1994, 2006 and 2022 finals.

The first World Cup final decided by a penalty shootout was at USA 1994 with Brazil and Italy facing off for the title. After a goalless stalemate, Brazil beat the Azzurri 3-2 in the shootout with Roberto Baggio missing a famous penalty in the match.

Italy, incidentally were on the right side of the shootout result in the 2006 final, as they trumped France 5-3 in the shootout after being locked at 1-1 after extra time.

Argentina hold the record of being involved in the most penalty shootouts in the FIFA World Cup -- seven They lost only one of these, the 2006 quarters vs Germany.

Germany, meanwhile, have never lost a penalty shootout in the FIFA World Cup, winning all four of the dreaded tie-breakers. Croatia, three wins in three, are the only other team which has been involved in more than one penalty shootout in the World Cup but still holds a 100 percent record.

England, Italy and Spain have each lost three of the four penalty shootouts they have been involved in at World Cups to date.

Portugal’s Ricardo and Croatia’s Danijel Subasic and Dominik Livakovic jointly hold the record for saving the most number of penalties in a single World Cup penalty shootout. Ricardo saved three against England in the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals while Subasic managed as many against Denmark in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Round of 16. Livakovic's feat came against Japan in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Round of 16 against Japan.

Danijel Subasic saved another penalty against Russia in the 2018 quarter-finals against Russia, which brought him level with Argentina’s Sergio Goycochea for the most penalty saves in a single edition of the World Cup. Goycochea saved two each against Yugoslavia in the quarters and Italy in the semis to guide his team to the final of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Ukrainian goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy is the only goalkeeper to have not conceded a goal in a World Cup penalty shootout. Against Switzerland in the 2006 World Cup Round of 16, Shovkovskiy saved two and watched Tranquillo Barnetta hit the post as Ukraine edged out Switzerland 3-0.

Italy legend Roberto Baggio has been a part of three different World Cup penalty shootouts, the most by any player in history. He scored in two of them but ended up on the losing side on all three occasions.