In short
The answer first
A penalty kick is awarded for a direct-free-kick offence committed by a defending player inside their own penalty area while the ball is in play, subject to the Laws. The ball is placed on the penalty mark, the identified kicker takes the kick, and the defending goalkeeper must comply with the goal-line requirements until the ball is kicked.
Key takeaways
The ball must be stationary with part of it touching or overhanging the centre of the penalty mark under the current Law.
The kicker must be clearly identified.
Other players must take the required positions outside the penalty area and penalty arc and behind the penalty mark.
The goalkeeper must remain within the Law's permitted goal-line position until the kick is taken.
A penalty during normal play can have a rebound; a penalty shoot-out follows a different procedure.
Setting up the penalty
Before the kick, the referee checks the ball, the identified taker, the goalkeeper and the positions of the other players. The penalty-area and penalty-arc restrictions create the required distance between the kicker and everyone except the defending goalkeeper.
The goalkeeper faces the kicker and must satisfy the goal-line positioning requirement until the ball is kicked. The referee gives the signal only after the players are correctly positioned and the restart can be taken safely.
When the ball is in play
The ball is in play when it is kicked forward and clearly moves. In normal match play, the kick does not end simply because the goalkeeper saves it. A rebound can be played by eligible players, although the kicker cannot touch the ball again before another player has touched it.
This is one of the major differences between a penalty kick during the match and a kick in a penalty shoot-out. A shoot-out kick has its own completion rules and does not become an ordinary open-play phase after a save or rebound.
Encroachment and offences
An early movement by an attacker, defender or goalkeeper does not always lead to the same outcome. The referee applies Law 14's offence-and-sanction framework, which considers who infringed, whether the kick resulted in a goal, and whether the infringement had an impact on the outcome.
That is why a retake, indirect free kick or acceptance of the original result can each be correct in different circumstances. The decision cannot be reduced to 'someone entered the box early'.
Penalty kick versus penalty shoot-out
A match penalty is a restart caused by an offence. A penalty shoot-out is a method for determining a winner after the match or tie has reached the competition's required endpoint. Their visual setup is similar, but eligibility, sequencing and when each kick is completed are governed separately.
For knockout football, it is therefore useful to read the match score, extra-time status and shoot-out score separately rather than treating every kick from the mark as the same statistical event.
Source check
Sources and further reading
KickVerse uses primary governing-body material where a rule or competition format has an official source. Analysis terms can vary between data providers, so provider-specific definitions are identified rather than presented as universal laws.
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