Question Number: 29239

Kicks From The Penalty mark 3/11/2015

David Bransbury of Dorado, Puerto Rico USA asks...

If a match goes to a penalty shootout and one team is down to 10 men what happens if an eleventh round of kicks is needed to decide the tie ?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Long before you get to that point - in fact, before the kicks to determine a winner begin - the team with more players will need to 'reduce to equate'. The captain will tell the referee which player will not be taking part in kicks.

So if you get to the 11th round, then all 10 players on each team have taken kicks, and we start again at the top. And the order doesn't have to match the way they came up in the first 10 kicks.

Now if a player is injured or sent off after the kicks begin, then should we get to the 11th kick, the team with only 10 will start again. It doesn't seem fair, but they had to do it that way because in some instances there would be no way to resolve it and the game would have to be abandoned! No one wants that after having played the whole game, overtime, and completing a so-far exciting round of kicks from the mark.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi David,

There is a part of the law which is summarised as 'reduce to equate'.

If, before Kicks From The Mark (KFTM - ie 'penalty shootout) begins, one team has more players than the other, they remove players to match numbers.

So in your scenario, there's no '11 v 10' situation - it's reduced to '10 v 10' before KFTM starts.

Note that this rule is only before KFTM starts; if anything happens to the numbers during this, then the teams do not reduce to equate. So that could mean one team is playing their 11th kicker versus the opponent's 1st.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi David
In these uneven number situations the referee asks the team with the greater number to *reduce to equate* before the kicks begin. The team will nominate player/s to not participate in Kicks from the Penalty Mark so the kicks in your example will begin with 10 v 10. The team will no doubt chose a player that does not want to take a kick and he will go to the side line.
Once kicks begin and a player is sent off the reduce to equate procedure does not apply and in that scenario the team with the fewer number will start the 2nd round of kicks after every player eligible to take a kick has already take one.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Dave,
when KFTPM begin there is a reduce to equate formula applied so if one team is reduced in numbers due to send offs, the other team will remove player/s to make the number of PK kickers the same!
However, if the while the KFTPM are already under way and one team is guilty of a sending off offence, there is no reduce to equate formula applied everyone goes until everyone has shot . Just remember that ONCE all eligible players have gone once, there is no order in which those players must go again, ANYONE can take a second kick no matter what order they took their 1st shot!

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

In Kicks from the Mark both teams must start with the same number of players. If one team has less players on field, then the other team reduces their team to equate that of the lesser team. Then once all players have taken a kick, players then are all able to take a second kick. No player may take a third kick then until all players have taken a second kick,