Soccer Penalty Shootouts: Order, Eligibility and Sudden Death
A soccer penalty shootout occurs after the match, uses only eligible players, starts with up to five alternating kicks per team and continues one-for-one if still level.
Timeline
- Background: This guide addresses a durable concept rather than one isolated news event.
- 2026-10-13: The current authoritative sources cited in this guide were reviewed.
A penalty shootout is a tie-breaking procedure used after a drawn match or two-leg tie when the competition requires a winner. IFAB’s Laws call it 'penalties (penalty shoot-out)' and place it in Law 10, which determines match outcomes. The competition rules decide whether a tie uses extra time, a shootout or another permitted sequence. The shootout begins only after the match, including any extra time, has ended. Its kicks therefore decide who advances or wins the tie; they are not ordinary penalty kicks awarded for fouls during the match and do not add goals to the match score in the same way. [1][2][5]
Before the kicks, the referee chooses the goal by coin toss unless safety, ground conditions or an unusable goal require a different decision. A second coin toss lets the winning team choose whether to kick first or second. Each team selects its own kicker order from the eligible players and does not give that order to the referee. The teams then alternate kicks. Subject to an early clinch, each side can take five. If one team reaches a total the other cannot equal even by scoring all remaining kicks, the procedure stops immediately rather than completing ten kicks for formality. [1][2]
If the teams are level after the initial five kicks each, the shootout continues in matched pairs—often called sudden death. One team must score while the other fails within the same number of kicks for the shootout to end. The team that kicked first continues to take the first kick of each pair. Every eligible player must take one kick before anyone on that team takes a second, and that rule repeats in subsequent rounds. A team may change its internal order after all eligible players have kicked; it does not have to preserve the original sequence for the next cycle. [1][2]
Eligibility is fixed mainly by who was a player at the final whistle. Apart from the special replacement allowed for a goalkeeper who cannot continue, only players on the field or temporarily off it for a valid reason, such as treatment or equipment adjustment, may participate. Ordinary substitutes who never entered cannot simply be added because they are strong kickers. A player sent off during the match is ineligible. When one side has more eligible players than the other at the end or becomes numerically larger during the procedure, it must reduce its number to match and tell the referee which player is excluded. [1][2][3]
Goalkeepers have special replacement rules. A goalkeeper who is unable to continue may be replaced by an eligible player who was excluded to equalize numbers or, if the team has not exhausted its permitted substitutes, by a named substitute. The replaced goalkeeper takes no further part. If the outgoing goalkeeper already took a kick in the current cycle, the replacement cannot take a kick until the next cycle. A goalkeeper sent off during the shootout must be replaced by an eligible player, while a non-goalkeeper who cannot continue may not be replaced. An eligible player may change places with the goalkeeper under the procedure. [1][2][3]
During each kick, the goalkeeper must comply with the applicable penalty-kick positioning law, and the kicker cannot play the ball a second time. There is no teammate waiting to score a rebound: the kick is completed when the ball stops moving, goes out of play or the referee stops play for an offence. Accidental double contact that sends the ball into the goal is retaken under the current clarification; if it does not enter, the kick is recorded as missed. Illegal feinting after completing the run-up is an offence, and the outcome and discipline follow Law 10 and the relevant penalty-kick provisions. [1][2][4]
Discipline crosses the final whistle in a specific way. A player who was sent off during the match cannot join the shootout, but warnings and yellow cards from the match do not carry forward into the shootout’s caution count. A new caution during the procedure is therefore recorded separately. Players, substitutes, substituted players and team officials can still be cautioned or sent off during the shootout. If a team loses an eligible player through a sending-off, the opposing team reduces its own eligible number as required so both kicking pools remain equal. [1][2][5]
To follow a shootout, track four things: the number of kicks each team has taken, whether either side has clinched early, which players remain eligible, and whether everyone in a team’s pool has kicked before someone repeats. Do not assume the strongest five must be named in advance, that unused substitutes can participate, or that 'sudden death' means the first miss immediately loses without the other team taking the matching kick. Finally, separate the global Laws from the competition format: IFAB defines the shootout procedure, while tournament regulations determine whether and when that procedure settles a draw. [1][2][3][4]
Sources
- Law 10: Determining the Outcome of a Match
- Laws of the Game 2026/27 (PDF)
- Law 3: The Players
- Law 14: The Penalty Kick
- Law 12: Fouls and Misconduct