Question Number: 32401

Law 14 - The Penalty kick 4/24/2018

RE: Competive Adult

Enrique86 of Red Deer, Canada asks...

A player who is taking a penalty misses the ball when attempting to take the kick what is the restart.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
I have never seen this done accidentally. I have seen many such situations where it is done deliberately as illegal feinting to get the goalkeeper to dive and then the kick is made with the ball going into the opposite side of the goal. That is not allowed under the Laws and in those cases the player is cautioned for unsporting behaviour and it is an IDFK from the penalty mark to the defending team.
If a player slipped on the run up and fell in his kicking action missing the ball completely and it is totally accidental the referee would be entitled for the kick to be taken correctly as the kick has not happened. I have seen one or two of these where the kicker stumbled where the ball was actually touched by the kicker and then double touched which is an IDFK offence and no caution.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=altzU3kU3Lo
In this video the restart would have been an IDFK for a double touch by the kicker
I really cannot see a complete miss with no contact on the ball yet if it where to happen the referee has to make the best decision taking into account all the circumstances and possible reasons such as pitch condition, age of the player, totally accidental or deliberate etc.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Enrique,
I, like ref McHugh, have never seen a player miss the ball by accident when taking a penalty and I doubt if I ever would. In the highly unlikely event of that happening and if I was convinced that it was a total accident, I agree that the player should be allowed to take the kick properly.

As ref McHugh also says, it much more likely that a double touch or feinting offence would occur and if so, this should be dealt with as he states.