When is a penalty kick awarded in soccer?

A penalty kick is awarded when a player commits an offense punishable by a direct free kick inside their own penalty area while the ball is in play. Those offenses include tripping, pushing, holding, kicking, and handling the ball deliberately. The location of the offense determines the award rather than where the ball was, and offenses punishable by indirect free kick do not produce a penalty. The kick is taken from the penalty mark twelve yards out, with all players except the kicker and goalkeeper outside the area and behind the ball until it is struck.

The goalkeeper must remain on or above the goal line until the ball is kicked, with at least part of one foot touching or in line with it, a requirement clarified in recent law changes after video review made technical infringements visible. If the goalkeeper saves it, the ball remains in play and can be scored from the rebound, unlike in a shootout. If the kicker feints after completing the run-up, it is an offense. Conversion rates in professional football sit around three quarters, which makes a penalty a very strong but not automatic scoring opportunity.

Penalty shootouts are a separate procedure used to decide knockout matches still level after extra time, with five kicks per side alternating and sudden death thereafter, and any rebound is dead. Video assistant referee review has changed penalty awards more than perhaps any other area of the game, since incidents in the penalty area are reviewable and marginal handball and contact decisions that once went unpunished now regularly produce penalties. The handball law itself has been rewritten repeatedly in recent years in response to that scrutiny, which is a reasonable indication that defining deliberate handling precisely is harder than it looks.