What is being questioned?
Every question in this scenario
The Shoot-out and outcome investigation scenario asks 10 questions and can reach 27 decisions. A walk answers only the ones its own answers lead to. This is the whole set, for reference and for revision.
1What is being questioned?
The team scoring more goals wins. Everything else in Law 10 is about what a competition may do when that produces no winner.
Answers: Whether a goal was scored · How the match is decided · Before the shoot-out starts · During the shoot-out · How many kicks, and when it ends · Cards and injuries during the shoot-out
2What is in question about the goal?
Two conditions: the whole ball over the whole line between the posts and under the bar, and no offence by the scoring team.
Answers: The ball crossed the goal line · The goalkeeper threw it straight into the opponents' goal · The referee signalled a goal before the ball was over
3Had the scoring team committed an offence?
The condition runs one way only. An offence by the defending team does not stop a goal, which is why advantage exists.
Answers: Yes · No
4What is in question?
Law 10 sets the default and then closes the list of things a competition may do instead, which is unusual: most of the Laws leave competition rules open.
Answers: Which team wins · What a competition may use to break a draw
5What is in question?
Cautions from the match are not carried into the kicks, so a player on a yellow starts the shoot-out clean.
Answers: Which goal, and who kicks first · Who is eligible to take kicks · One team has more players than the other · The goalkeeper cannot continue
6Had that goalkeeper already taken a kick?
Law 10 adds one condition about the replacement, and it turns on what the goalkeeper had already done.
Answers: Yes · No
7What is in question?
Most of what happens at each kick is Law 14. Law 10 adds where everyone stands, when a kick is over, and two offences.
Answers: Where everyone must be · The taking of the kick itself · When a kick is completed · Struck with both feet, or it touched the non-kicking foot · The goalkeeper offended and the kick is retaken · The kicker offended after the referee's signal · The goalkeeper and the kicker both offended
8Did the ball enter the goal from the kick?
Law 10 splits this on the result, in the shoot-out's vocabulary of outcomes rather than restarts.
Answers: Yes · No
9What is in question?
Subject to the conditions Law 10 explains, both teams take five kicks, taken alternately, and the referee keeps a record of them. The rest is about when the five stops being true.
Answers: The order of the kickers · It ended before both teams had taken five · Still level after five kicks each · A player left the field during the kicks
10What happened?
The kicks are part of the match for discipline and separate from it for the count.
Answers: A caution or a sending-off · The goalkeeper was sent off · An outfield player cannot continue · A team fell below seven players
Every decision it can reach
Each one is where a walk ends, with the reasoning it prints. The clause behind a decision is cited on the decision itself, which you reach by walking to it.
No goal
The provision is conditioned on no offence having been committed by the team scoring the goal, so an offence by the scoring team, an offside, a handball or a foul, stops it. Which restart follows comes from the Law that was broken rather than from Law 10, which says nothing about it.
Goal
A goal is scored when the whole of the ball passes over the goal line, between the goalposts and under the crossbar, provided that no offence has been committed by the team scoring the goal. Whole of the ball and whole of the line, the same test Law 9 uses for the ball going out, and no requirement that anyone intended it.
No goal: goal kick
If the goalkeeper throws the ball directly into the opponents' goal, a goal kick is awarded. Law 15 answers the other way of throwing it in with the same restart: a goal cannot be scored directly from a throw-in either, and if the ball enters the opponents' goal a goal kick is awarded. Directly is the operative word in both, so a throw that goes in off any other player is an ordinary goal.
No goal: dropped ball
If a referee signals a goal before the ball has passed wholly over the goal line, play is restarted with a dropped ball. The whistle stopped play, so nothing that happened after it counts, and Law 10 gives the neutral restart rather than punishing either team for the referee's error.
The team scoring more goals wins, otherwise it is a draw
The team scoring the greater number of goals is the winner. If both teams score no goals or an equal number of goals, the match is drawn. A drawn match is a result rather than a problem, and nothing in the Laws requires a winner: that comes from a competition's own rules.
Away goals, extra time, or penalties, and only those
When competition rules require a winning team after a drawn match or home-and-away tie, the only permitted procedures are the away goals rule, two equal periods of extra time not exceeding 15 minutes each, and penalties. A combination may be used. Only permitted is the operative phrase: a replay is not on the list, and neither is any of the tie-breaks other sports use.
Two tosses: one for the goal, one for the order
Unless there are other considerations such as ground conditions or safety, the referee tosses a coin to decide the goal at which the kicks will be taken, and that may only be changed for safety reasons or if the goal or playing surface becomes unusable. The referee then tosses again, and the team that wins that toss decides whether to take the first or second kick. Two separate tosses, and the second one is a choice of order rather than of end.
Only those on the field at the end, and the team picks the order in secret
With the exception of a substitute for a goalkeeper who is unable to continue, only players who are on the field of play, or are temporarily off it for injury or equipment, at the end of the match are eligible to take kicks. Each team selects the order from those players and the referee is not informed of it. A player sent off during the match is not permitted to take part at all.
The bigger team reduces to match, and names who is excluded
If at the end of the match, or before or during the kicks, one team has a greater number of players than its opponents, it must reduce its numbers to the same number and the referee must be informed of the name and number of each player excluded. An excluded player is not eligible to take part, with one exception written elsewhere: they may come back to replace a goalkeeper who cannot continue.
The replacement may not kick until the next round
If the goalkeeper has already taken a kick, the replacement may not take a kick until the next round of kicks. The rule stops a team taking two kicks in one round through the substitution, since every eligible player must take a kick before anyone takes a second, and a replacement kicking in the same round would break that count.
The replacement may take a kick in this round
A goalkeeper unable to continue may be replaced by a player excluded to equalise the numbers or, where the team has substitutes left, by a named substitute, and the replaced goalkeeper takes no further part and may not take a kick. Since that goalkeeper had not yet kicked, the round is untouched and the replacement joins the order normally. This is the only route back for an excluded player.
Everyone in the centre circle, except the kicker and the two goalkeepers
Only eligible players and match officials may remain on the field of play. All eligible players except the player taking the kick and the two goalkeepers must remain within the centre circle. The goalkeeper of the kicker must remain on the field, outside the penalty area, on the goal line where it meets the penalty area boundary. An eligible player may change places with the goalkeeper, which is how a team can use a specialist saver for the kicks. Law 10 prints no procedure for that change, so Law 3's requirement that the referee is informed and the change is made during a stoppage is what applies, since the Laws of the Game apply to the kicks unless Law 10 says otherwise.
The kick itself is taken under Law 14
Penalties are taken after the match has ended and, unless otherwise stated, the relevant Laws of the Game apply. So the taking of each kick is Law 14's: where the ball goes, where the goalkeeper's feet must be, feinting after the run up is completed, encroachment by either team, and what each of those does to the outcome. Law 10 changes only what the outcome is called, a kick recorded as scored or missed rather than a goal or a restart. Law 14's questions are what come next.
Continues in the law 14 penalty scenario.
When the ball stops moving, goes out of play, or the referee stops play
The kick is completed when the ball stops moving, goes out of play, or the referee stops play for any offence, and the kicker may not deliberately play the ball a second time. So a rebound off the post that the kicker follows up is not a goal: the ball was still moving, so the kick was not yet complete, and the second touch is forbidden outright. There is no free kick for it, because a shoot-out kick produces a record rather than a restart: the rule Law 10 does print for an offence by the kicker after the referee's signal is that the kick is recorded as missed and the kicker is cautioned, and Ruleside's reading is that a deliberate second touch is one. What that rests on: Law 10 prints the prohibition on the kicker playing the ball a second time and attaches no consequence to it, and prints missed-and-cautioned for an offence penalised after the referee's signal. The two are separate bullets, and joining them is a reading rather than a quotation, which is worth saying out loud because the consequence is a caution.
The kick is retaken
If the kicker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously, or the ball touches their non-kicking foot or leg immediately after the kick, and the ball enters the goal, the kick is retaken. The goal is not allowed to stand and the team is not made to lose the kick either.
Recorded as missed
If the ball does not enter the goal from the kick, the kick is recorded as missed. Note the asymmetry: the same defect gives a retake when it produces a goal and a miss when it does not, so a team can never gain from it.
Warned for the first, cautioned for any after that
If the goalkeeper commits an offence and, as a result, the kick is retaken, the goalkeeper is warned for the first offence and cautioned for any subsequent offence. A warning is not a card, which is why a goalkeeper coming off the line early in a shoot-out is not automatically booked. It is not the only warning in the Laws either: Law 14 prints the same ladder for a penalty kick during the match, Law 12 makes the warning the first tier of the technical area's ladder, and the guidelines require a warning for holding an opponent before the ball is in play. Whether the offence causes a retake at all is Law 14's question.
Recorded as missed, and the kicker is cautioned
If the kicker is penalised for an offence committed after the referee has signalled for the kick to be taken, that kick is recorded as missed and the kicker is cautioned. Both, and immediately: this is the illegal feint and its equivalents, and unlike the goalkeeper there is no warning first.
Recorded as missed, and the kicker is cautioned. Ruleside's reading
Law 10 prints an answer for the goalkeeper offending and an answer for the kicker offending, and none for both at once. Ruleside's reading is that the kick is recorded as missed and the kicker is cautioned. It is not a citation. The 2026/27 edition states this rule in as many words, but it states it only in the Law changes section, and this site does not cite that section: those pages print amendments with the old text struck through and the new text underlined, a text extraction carries neither, and a clause taken from there can state the opposite of the Law it describes. Checked against the printed document rather than the extraction, the sentence appears on two pages and both are inside that section, while Law 10's own body does not carry it. So the document is inconsistent with itself here and the site follows the body. What decides it in the same direction is Law 10's own shape: a shoot-out kick produces a record rather than a restart, and of the two answers the Law does print, the retake belongs to the goalkeeper's offence alone. Where the kicker has also offended, the reason for the retake is gone and the kicker's own outcome is what is left. Law 14 answers the equivalent case in open play differently, with a retake, and that is a different question because a penalty kick is a restart.
Everyone kicks once before anyone kicks twice
Each kick is taken by a different player, and all eligible players must take a kick before any player can take a second kick. The express permission to change the order of kickers is written for any subsequent sequence, after the five each, and the first five need no such permission because the order was never given to the referee.
It stops as soon as one team cannot be caught
If, before both teams have taken five kicks, one has scored more goals than the other could score even if it were to complete its five kicks, no more kicks are taken. The test is arithmetic rather than a scoreline: it is about what the trailing team could still reach. At 3-0 after three kicks each it is over, because the two kicks left cannot reach three; at 3-1 after three each it is not, because two more would level it.
Kicks continue until one team leads after an equal number
If, after both teams have taken five kicks, the scores are level, kicks continue until one team has scored a goal more than the other from the same number of kicks. From the same number is what makes it fair: a team that scores first in a round has not won until its opponents have had their kick.
The kicks do not wait, and the kick is forfeited
Penalties must not be delayed for a player who leaves the field of play, and the player's kick will be forfeited, meaning not scored, if the player does not return in time to take it. Forfeited rather than passed to a team-mate: the team simply loses that kick, which is what stops a team using an exit to reorder its takers.
Cards still apply, and the slate started clean
A player, substitute, substituted player or team official may be cautioned or sent off during the kicks. What does not carry over is the match: warnings and cautions issued to players and team officials during the match are not carried forward into the kicks, so a player already on a yellow cannot be dismissed by a second one earned in the shoot-out. A sending-off during the match is different and bars the player from taking part at all. The equalising rule then runs again, because it covers numbers going unequal during the kicks as well as at the end of the match: the opponents must reduce to the same number and name who is excluded.
Replaced by an eligible player
A goalkeeper who is sent off must be replaced by an eligible player. Must, not may: a shoot-out cannot proceed without a goalkeeper, so the replacement comes from the players already eligible for the kicks rather than from the bench, and the team is a taker short as a result. The equalising rule then runs again, because it covers numbers going unequal during the kicks as well as at the end of the match: the opponents must reduce to the same number and name who is excluded.
Not replaced
A player other than the goalkeeper who is unable to continue may not be replaced. The goalkeeper is the sole exception in Law 10, and everywhere else an injury during the kicks simply costs the team a taker, which the forfeited-kick rule then handles when their turn comes round. The equalising rule then runs again, because it covers numbers going unequal during the kicks as well as at the end of the match: the opponents must reduce to the same number and name who is excluded.
The shoot-out continues anyway
The referee must not abandon the match if a team is reduced to fewer than seven players. This is the one place the seven-player floor in Law 3 does not apply, and Law 10 gives no reason for it. Ruleside's reading is that the kicks are not play: there is no match to continue, only a procedure to finish, so the count that protects a contest has nothing left to protect.