What is a penalty kick in football?
When is a penalty kick awarded?
Location is the deciding factor: any offence punishable by a direct free kick becomes a penalty when the defending team commits it inside its own penalty area. Kicking, tripping, pushing, holding and handball offences all qualify. What matters is where the offence happens, not where the ball is at that moment, so a shirt pulled at the far post during a corner is a penalty even if play is on the other side of the box.
In matches with VAR, penalty incidents are one of the four categories the video assistant referee reviews. A penalty that was given can be cancelled, and one that was missed can be awarded after a review, which is why contested contact in the box is checked in the background even while play continues.
What are the penalty kick rules?
The ball is placed on the penalty spot, 11 metres from the midpoint of the goal line. The kicker must be clearly identified to the referee. Until the ball is kicked, the goalkeeper must keep part of at least one foot on or in line with the goal line, and every other player must remain outside the penalty area, outside the arc and behind the ball. A goalkeeper who charges forward early and saves may see the kick retaken.
The kicker may vary the rhythm of the run-up, but stopping after completing the run to deceive the goalkeeper is an offence. The taker also may not play a rebound before another player touches the ball; a rebound off the goalkeeper or the woodwork, by contrast, is live for everyone.
Penalty kick vs free kick: what is the difference?
Both are restarts given after an offence, but the geometry is completely different. A free kick is taken from wherever the offence occurred, usually with a defensive wall set 9.15 metres away and ten defenders able to organise behind the ball. A penalty strips the situation down to a single duel between kicker and goalkeeper from 11 metres, which is why it carries a far higher chance of a goal.
The severity of the offence is identical in both cases; only the location changes the outcome. The same holding foul is a free kick at the halfway line and a penalty inside the box. That is what makes defending in the penalty area such a discipline of its own: a challenge that would be routine elsewhere can decide the match near your own goal.
This term in Shutli
A penalty is the single highest-value chance a match can produce, and the moment one is awarded it appears as a sharp step in Shutli's Live xG Analysis chart. A missed penalty often flips the emotional balance toward the defending side, a swing you can watch unfold in the Momentum panel minute by minute.