Referee Signals for Soccer Penalties

In soccer, players are penalized if they commit any one of a series of offences listed by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), soccer's world governing body. FIFA's rules lay out a series of specific signals which referees must use to signal penalty kicks, direct and indirect free kicks and allowing advantage. These signals are the same all over the world.

  1. Penalty Kicks

    • As soon as the referee sees an offense being committed, he must first blow his whistle to stop play. He should then make a clear signal that he has awarded a penalty by pointing downwards towards the penalty spot with his arm outstretched and straight. Having ensured that the player who will take the penalty kick has been identified, that the ball is on the penalty spot and that all players are in the correct positions, the referee blows his whistle to allow the kick to be taken. If the player taking the penalty kick scores a goal, the referee should collect the ball and restart play with a kick-off. If the penalty kick does not result in a goal, play continues.

    Direct Free Kicks

    • The referee awards a direct free kick if a player commits one of 10 offences defined by FIFA's Laws of the Game. These include kicking, tripping or spitting at an opponent. To award the free kick, the referee blows his whistle to stop play and then signals the free kick by holding one arm outstretched towards the direction in which the kick will be taken and the other outstretched arm pointing downwards towards the place the kick should be taken from.

    Indirect Free Kicks

    • An indirect free kick can be awarded by the referee if a player commits one of eight offences defined by FIFA in the Laws of the Game document. These include a goalkeeper holding the ball in his hands for more than six seconds and a player preventing the goalkeeper from releasing the ball from his hands. The referee stops play by blowing his whistle and awards the indirect free kick by raising one straight arm directly upwards. He must keep his arm in this position until the kick has been taken and the ball touches another player or goes out of play.

    Advantage

    • If the referee sees an offence, but feels that it would penalise the non-offending team to stop play by awarding a free kick, he can instead allow play to continue by giving an advantage. To do this, he does not blow his whistle, but instead shouts "Advantage, play on" and sweeps both arms upwards and forwards.