The Mind-blowing Evolution of Penalties throughout the Years

 

Football penalties have been evolving from time to time in terms of rules, technique, and more. 

Penalties have been an integral part of football games. It is one crucial moment that could make the difference between the winners and the losers. It can change the game, the team’s confidence, or fortune, especially when it comes to the shootout.

The penalty kick was not exactly included yet when the first law of the game was introduced in 1863. Initially, the punishment for handball, including the one near the goal, was an indirect freekick back in 1872. Then, it was changed to a free goal for the opposition side when one team committed a handball in 1882. Yet, it was abolished a year later, as it was unnecessarily and unfairly harsh for such a fault.

In 1890, it was actually the Irish FA (FAI) who brought the idea of penalties to the International Football Association Board. The Irish businessman and also a member of the FAI, William McCrum, was the one who invented it. Yet the idea was not exactly approved until 1891. In fact, the penalty kick idea was even derided by the press and considered against the Victorian gentleman sportsman code of honor. However, the events in these two games became the catalyst for the introductionfor the introduction of penalty kicks to replace the indirect free kick, which was used for punishing deliberate handball.

• One field player intentionally fisted the ball under the crossbar to prevent the goal on December 20, 1890. (East Sterling vs. Hearts in the Scottish FA Cup quarterfinal)
• The indirect free kick for the deliberate handball on the goal line did not result in the goal on February 14, 1891. (Stoke City vs. Notts County in the FA Cup quarterfinal)

The penalty was eventually included as rule number 13 in the Laws of the Game in June 1891. It was seen as a more proper punishment (harsher than a merely indirect free kick) for the team that touched the ball to prevent the goal on purpose. Since then, there have been some changes to the penalty regulation.

Evolution of Penalty Rules

• In 1891, a penalty kick was awarded for any intentional handball to prevent the goal in the area within 11 metres of the goal line and could be done from any spot within that distance. The goalie could move out of the goal line as far as 5.5 metres, and players could dribble the ball before kicking the penalty.
• In 1892, the penalty kicker could not touch the ball again before it touched another player.
• In 1902, penalty areas and penalty spots were introduced.
• In 1903, all dangerous offences and foul play within the six-yard box were included in the rule for a penalty. Previously, it was only limited to deliberate handball.
• In 1905, the goalie must stay on the goal line.
• In 1923, all non-penalty-taker players must not be too close to the penalty spot. They had to be 9.15 metres from the spot.
• In 1930, the goalie could not move their feet until the penalty was taken.
• In 1937, the arc (the D area just outside the penalty box) was added to help the referee control the minimum distance for other non-penalty takers to stay out of the arc.
• In 1939, the ball would be in play once it travelled a certain distance after the penalty kick.
• In 1997, the ball would be in play soon after the penalty kick. Moreover, the goalie could move his feet and must face the kicker on penalties.
• In 2016, the ball would be in play once it moved in a penalty kick.                                                                                                                   

Various Penalty Techniques

Penalty techniques have been developed ever since. They are not limited to relying on power or placing the ball at the preferred angle. Several creative ones were invented too. Here is the timeline for penalty techniques.

• In the 1900s, penalties relied more on power.
• In the 1950s, the tap penalty, which included passing the ball to a teammate before shooting to score, was introduced by Northern Ireland’s Jimmy Mcllroy and Danny Blanchflower in a game against Portugal in May 1957. Such became more well-known when Johan Cryuff adopted it in 1982 while playing for Ajax. He collaborated with Jesper Olsen to score.
• In the 1970s, the Panenka penalty was introduced, precisely in the 1976 EURO final. The term ‘Panenka’ was taken from the player who first did it, Czechoslovakia’s Antonin Panenka. Yet, it was not popular until Zinedine Zidane successfully used the same technique in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final. In the same decade, Pele invented the feinting technique known as ‘paradinha’, which included a little stop after a run up to the penalty spot.
• In the 1990s and 2000s, various techniques were generated and developed, such as the no run-up penalty (famously done by Lazio’s Guiseppe Signori in the mid-1990s), the rabona penalty, the ezequinha (switching the use of the foot (right to left or vice versa) on the last minute before the kick), or the back-heeled penalty.
• In 2010, the feinting penalty, which was presumably invented by Pele, was no longer allowed.

Evolution in the Penalty Shootout

Penalty shootouts were introduced in 1970 by IFAB after growing dissatisfaction with the tiebreaker method in the tournament. It was proposed by Israel FA secretary general Yosef Dagan back in 1969 after Israel’s loss to Bulgaria in the 1968 Olympic football quarterfinal by drawing of lots. It was one of the two tie-breaker methods mainly used at that time. The other one was a replay match.

However, prior to such a proposal, the shootout was already used in several countries’ domestic competitions. Yugoslavia was the first to use it in the Yugoslav Cup of 1952. It was the game in the round of 32 between Kvarner Rijeka and Proleter Rijeka. Both teams shared a spoiler before the former won 4-3 on penalties. Another one was seen in the 1963 Albanian Cup final as KS Besa beat 17 Nentori 5-3 by shootout.

In 1977, the USA once experimented with a new kind of shootout adapted from ice hockey in their then-top-flight league, NASL (North American Soccer League). Each executor, instead of doing a regular penalty, stood 32 metres from the goal and was given five seconds to run and make any moves before shooting the ball. The goalie could attempt to move out of the goal line and close down the executor within the same period of time. It was adopted by MLS too in its early years, from 1996 to 2000. Unfortunately, FIFA was not in favour of such an idea.

Finally, in 2023, FIFA and IFAB imposed a new rule for the shot stoppers during the penalties. They are no longer allowed to distract the kickers’ focus in any way, including making a weird move such as spaghetti legs, dancing on the goal line, shouting and talking to the executors, and mind games. The rule would force the goalies to rely on classic tactics again to save penalties by guessing the shots.