Introduction: The team that would like to win a soccer match needs score goal(s). However, not many goals are usually scored during soccer matches, on average only 2.5 to 3. Thus, goals can be treated as rare events and even a single goal can determine whether a team wins. In course of this, penalties play a prominent role. The fact that about 80% of the penalty kicks result in a goal underpins the penalty kick's importance. In this set play a player shoots at the goal from 11 yards without being interfered by an opponent outfield player. Only the opponent goalkeeper can prevent the ball crossing the goal line. Subjectively, referees however still accept several rule breakings during a penalty kick. This could be players running into the box or the goalkeeper not staying on the goal line. In order to get an objective measurement of this impression, the aim of this research is to investigate if and in which way penalties are conducted irregularly and how the umpire decided. Methods: 618 penalty kicks from four European Leagues (Austrian Bundesliga. German Bundesliga. Serie A. Premier League) and one Cup Event (German Cup), excluding penalty shootouts. from two complete seasons (2015/16, 2016/17) and the beginning of the 2017/18 season were analyzed. The video footage of all matches was provided by Sportradar. Using a systematic observation system, several aspects for each penalty kick were collected by an operator including rule violations and the player(s)/team(s) responsible for them. An intra-rater test revealed that the data is reliable (.94 s k S 1). Statistical differences were determined using chi-square tests and Fisher's Exact tests (where necessary using Monte Carlo simulation) based on the alpha level .05. Results: No penalty was executed without any rule infringement. However, the referees correctly judged 2.8% (n=17) of the infringements. Most of these corrected penalties (82.4%; n=14) were right because the executing player scores while his teammates behave correctly. In only three cases (17.6%: n=3) the umpire made the players repeat the penalty kick. In most cases (96.3%: n=595) both attackers and defenders entered the box too early and the goalkeeper concurrently moved irregularly. This behavior was slightly different from league to league (p<.001: Cramer`s V=.13). No statistical difference was found between the cup contest and the leagues (p=.809). Interestingly, the goalkeeper behaved against the rules in 98.7% of the cases. However, no statistical difference (p=.149) was found that this helps the goalkeeper to save the ball more often. Conclusion: In general, the penalty rule seems to be badly implemented. However, as in other sports (i.e. the time a tennis player has to serve) it can be an unwritten rule how exact the penalty rule is applied by the umpires. They only insist on the rules if the behavior of one of the players is salient against the penalty rule. In particular, it seems that the executing player should be able to profit from the advantage of a penalty kick. The only mistake he can make is to stop during the run-up.
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