A few weeks ago a reader asked me about the taking of a penalty kick. ‘What are the “rules”,’ he asked, ‘governing the kicker taking the kick.’ ‘Confusing’ was my answer. Whether the questioner had a particular incident in mind, I’m not sure, but I was reminded of his query when watching the penalty taken by Cristiano Ronaldo in the Manchester United v Arsenal match on television.
The law says very little regarding the kicker. It requires that the player taking the kick is positively identified. This is of course to prevent any attacker running out of the crowd of players and taking the kick when the goalkeeper might be waiting for it to be taken by another player. Other than that, it merely states that the player taking the kick, kicks the ball forward and must not play it a second time until it has touched another player.
However, under Infringements and Sanctions, the Law says ‘If the player taking the penalty kick infringes the Laws of the Game, the referee allows the kick to be taken and, if the ball enters the goal, the kick is retaken. If the ball does not enter the goal, the referee stops play and restarts with an indirect free kick to the defending team.’ It does not tell us however, what offences the kicker might
commit. Separately, it mentions that kicking the ball twice earns an indirect free kick but no other clue.
We must therefore turn to the referees’ other book,
Advice on the Application of the Laws of the Game. In here it says, ‘A player taking a penalty kick may try to deceive the goalkeeper as to his intentions and such action is allowed. This is quite different from “trickery” when the player stops his kicking action in order to make the goalkeeper move in one direction and then kicks it to the other.
This is quite contrary to the spirit of the Laws and the player at fault should be cautioned for unsporting behaviour and the kick retaken if a goal has resulted. If the ball does not enter the goal, the referee stops play and restarts with an indirect free kick to the defending team.’
Anyone who watched the Manchester United/Arsenal clash will know that what Ronaldo did, was to start his run up and then stop. This deceived the Arsenal goalkeeper, who dived to one side of his goal, only for Ronaldo to continue his run and put the ball in the other. The referee ordered the kick to be retaken. Was this, I asked myself, because Ronaldo had committed ‘trickery’ in making the goalkeeper move prematurely? But no, the reason for the retake was that two players, one from either side, also confused by Ronaldo’s sudden stop, had entered the penalty area before the ball had actually been kicked.
When the kick was retaken, Ronaldo carried out exactly the same routine, stopping his run up again, deceiving the goalkeeper into moving early and putting the ball past him on the other side. This time no other players entered the penalty area and the goal was allowed.
Years ago, the penalty kick was straight
forward: the kicker ran up and kicked the ball. I don’t know if it’s just me but I struggle to see the difference between a player stopping his kicking action and stopping his run up, when the intention is quite clearly the same, to deceive the goalkeeper into committing himself to move in one direction leaving the goal wide open.
When the International FA Board met at Gleneagles last month to review the laws, they decided that it was time for them to be re-written once again. They believe a review, which simplifies the wording of the laws is overdue. Perhaps while they are tackling this, they could reconsider what constitutes ‘trickery’ at a penalty kick.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2008