Question Number: 31689

Law 14 - The Penalty kick 8/8/2017

RE: Under 19

Douglas Wix of Liverpool, Merseyside United Kingdom asks...

This question is a follow up to question 31684

Thank you so much for informative replies. So the law isnt being applied really is it? Maybe if a ref did make a retake & give a caution or even send keeper off with 2nd csution it would dtop it. Adrian of West Ham is worst offender. The VAR would soon sort it all out. Thanks again guys,appreciated. Cheers.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Douglas
I believe the conversion rate for penalties is 80 plus percent so the vast majority of kicks are scored. Of those that are missed I would suspect that a percentage of misses are kicked wide so saves would be low. Those that are legal would also be percentage so it is quite low those that need to be dealt with as certain encroachment.
Also goalkeepers get into a habit of encroachment and as the goal is scored the encroachment makes no difference as it is ignored with the goal awarded. Habit is also hard to break and good kickers also take advantage of that by anticipating the early movement of the GK.
I also think that there is little appetite to challenge this in the game as the AR that is already positioned on the goal line can easily see encroachment. In all my years as an AR I flagged encroachment once as it was so blatant that it could not be ignored. When I did it I was public enemy number 1 as it was an outlier decision, rarely flagged and even though it was so blatant made little difference.
Also add in player encroachment into the mix and these are PK infringements that are seen as trifling and doubtful with little appetite to deal with them. I also doubt that the VAR system will be used for this

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 31730