After Madrid penalty furore, football’s lawmakers rule for retakes
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Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez scores a penalty during the penalty shootout wich is later disallowed after a VAR review for a double touch.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PARIS – If Julian Alvarez accidentally repeats his infamous double-touch penalty for Atletico Madrid at the upcoming Club World Cup, he will get the second chance he was denied in the Champions League in March, after international football’s rule-making body on June 3 clarified the rule.
The International Football Association Board (Ifab) announced that if players unintentionally touch the ball twice while taking a spot kick and still find the net, they should be allowed a retake.
Alvarez slipped as he netted his kick in a shoot-out to decide a Champions League derby against Real Madrid in the round of 16.
The video assistant referee (VAR) spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before he kicked it with his right, and the effort was chalked off by the referee. Real won the shoot-out 4-2.
After the match, European governing body Uefa said that “under the current rule, the VAR had to call the referee signalling that the goal should be disallowed”.
Uefa then said it would discuss the issue with Fifa and Ifab, which issued its ruling on June 3.
It was due to come into force on July 1, but Fifa at once announced the change would apply to the June 14-July 13 Club World Cup, with both Madrid clubs among the 32 teams to compete in the US.
Uefa also adopted the change, stating that “all Uefa matches, starting with the Nations League semi-final between Germany and Portugal on 4 June 2025 will now be played under the new interpretation of Law 14”.
“The situation where the penalty taker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously or when the ball touches the penalty taker’s non-kicking foot or leg immediately after they have taken the kick... is rare,” wrote Lukas Brud, Ifab’s secretary in a circular.
“As it is not directly covered in Law 14, referees have understandably tended to penalise the kicker for having touched the ball again.”
However, he added, the law “is primarily intended for situations where the penalty taker deliberately touches the ball a second time before it has touched another player”.
Brud pointed out that even an accidental second touch could be unfair to a goalkeeper because it changes the ball’s trajectory.
Therefore, he wrote, Ifab had decided that “if the kick is successful, it is retaken”.
If a kick during the game is unsuccessful, the result is an indirect free kick, as it would be for a deliberate second touch, unless the referee decides to play an advantage for the defending team. In a shoot-out, it remains a miss. AFP
