Penalty shootout rules in soccer

How does a penalty shootout work?

1. Pick the goal. The referee tosses a coin to choose which goal the kicks are taken at. It can change only for safety reasons or if the goal or pitch becomes unusable.
2. Pick who kicks first. The referee tosses a coin again, and the team that wins the toss decides whether to kick first or second.
3. Take turns. The teams alternate kicks from the penalty mark, 11 m (12 yd) out from the goal line.
4. Five kicks each. The team with more goals after 5 kicks each wins. If one team cannot catch up even by scoring all its remaining kicks, the shootout stops early.
5. Then sudden death. Level after 5 kicks each: one kick each until one team scores and the other misses.

Each team chooses its own kickers and their order from its eligible players, and the referee is not told the order.

When does a penalty shootout end early?

As soon as one team has scored more than the other could reach with all its remaining kicks. Here is a shootout between Rovers and United, with Rovers kicking first:

After round 4, Rovers have one kick left and can reach 3 at most, so United win 4-2 and round 5 is not needed. A 3-0 lead after three rounds ends it even sooner, after round 3, because the trailing team can reach only 2.

If the teams are level after five rounds, the shootout goes to sudden death: round 6, then 7 and so on, until one team scores and the other misses in the same round.

Who can take a penalty in a shootout?

• Only players on the field at the end. Players on the field of play when the match ends, including extra time, are eligible, and so are players temporarily off it, for example for treatment. Substitutes who never came on cannot kick.
• Everyone kicks once before anyone kicks twice. In a long sudden death, the order restarts only once every eligible player has kicked.
• Equal numbers. A team with more players than its opponents, for example because the other side had a player sent off, must reduce its numbers to match before the kicks start.
• Goalkeeper injuries. A goalkeeper who cannot continue may be replaced, even during the shootout.

What happens if the kicker slips and touches the ball twice?

An accidental double touch now has its own rule, brought in for 2025/26 after Julián Álvarez slipped during Atlético Madrid's Champions League shootout against Real Madrid in March 2025 and his goal was disallowed. If the kicker slips and the ball touches both feet, or the standing leg straight after the kick, the kick is retaken when the ball goes in. In a shootout, when it does not go in, the kick is recorded as missed. The rule is part of the Laws of the Game 2026/27, which apply from 1 July 2026.

What was the ABBA penalty shootout trial?

Research suggested that the team kicking first wins more often. So in 2017 the IFAB, the body that writes the Laws of the Game, trialled an ABBA order, the same pattern as serving in a tennis tiebreak: A, B, then B, A, then A, B, and so on. UEFA used it at its under-17 and under-19 championships that year.

In November 2018 the IFAB's Annual Business Meeting agreed that ABBA would no longer be an option for competitions, citing the absence of strong support, mainly because the procedure is complex. Shootouts today use the simple alternating order: A, B, A, B.

How is a penalty shootout recorded?

Kicks from the penalty mark are not part of the match, so their goals are never added to the score. Write the match score, then the shootout in brackets:

• 1-1 (4-3 on penalties), or 1-1 (4-3 pens).
• 3-3 aet (4-2 pens) when extra time was played. That is how the 2022 World Cup final ended: Argentina 3-3 France after extra time, and Argentina won 4-2 on penalties.

The match itself stays level; the shootout only decides who goes through. For how a knockout reaches this point, see how to keep score in soccer.