Aaaah! These darn penalties!

For the past three weeks, football lovers — and even those who do not love or understand football — have been glued to televised football matches between 48 teams from across the world, representing every continent, in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup 2026 tournament.

This year’s tournament is being played in locations across Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

The tournament involves several rounds of games. There is a group stage involving all 48 teams, divided into 12 groups. From the group stage, 32 teams advance to the knockout stage. From there, 16 teams advance to the round of 16, followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals, and ultimately the final, where two teams will compete for the championship at the New York-New Jersey Stadium (MetLife Stadium in New Jersey) on July 19.

While teams advance from the group stage based on points, all games in the knockout rounds are elimination matches, where the losing team is out of the tournament. A very interesting feature of these games is that if, after 90 minutes of regulation time and an additional 30 minutes of extra time, the score remains tied, the game is decided by penalty kicks. The team that scores the most penalties wins.

Games in the round of 32 began on June 28, and highly regarded teams like Germany and the Netherlands, which were expected to advance far in the tournament, have been eliminated after losing in penalty shootouts. Meanwhile, teams like Paraguay and Morocco, which were not expected to advance, have reached the round of 16.

The defeats of highly regarded teams such as Germany through penalty shootouts have led some fans to criticize the system used to decide tied games. Many fans want FIFA to eliminate penalty shootouts and replace them with another method.

Penalty shootouts are a relatively recent innovation in football history. The first official penalty shootout was approved by FIFA in 1970 after being proposed by Israeli football official Yosef Dagan. FIFA adopted the system because previous methods of deciding tied knockout matches were often considered unsatisfactory.

Before penalty shootouts, tied games were settled in several different ways.

One method was replaying the entire match. This was the most common approach, where tied teams met again several days later. It was practical when tournaments had fewer teams and less demanding schedules.

Another method was deciding the winner by a coin toss. Believe it or not, some major international matches were decided purely by chance. The most famous example occurred at the UEFA European Championship in 1968, when Italy reached the final after its semifinal against the Soviet Union was decided by a coin toss following a 0-0 draw.

Penalty shootouts were first used at the FIFA World Cup in 1982. Since then, they have decided many famous matches, including finals of the FIFA World Cup in 1994, 2006, and 2022.

It is understandable why many fans dislike tied games being decided by penalty kicks. A team can dominate for 120 minutes, create more chances, hit the goal post repeatedly, and still be eliminated because of a penalty shootout. It can seem like a harsh way to end an important match.

But penalty kicks are not “ridiculous,” as some critics argue. They have some advantages. They provide a clear and quick winner, create drama and excitement for spectators, and every team knows the rules before the tournament begins.

The problem is that penalty shootouts test very specific individual skills — taking and saving penalties — rather than overall team performance.

Suggestions for using other methods, such as corners won or shots on goal during the 120 minutes of tied games, have been discussed before, but they have drawbacks. Teams might begin playing for corners instead of trying to score goals or take low-quality shots simply to increase their totals. These statistics do not always reflect which team played better.

Nevertheless, there are some other interesting suggestions, including:

• A “golden goal” period with fewer players (for example, 10 minutes of 8 versus 8). The extra space on the field would likely produce a winning goal.
• Gradually reducing the number of players every five minutes during extra time, making it increasingly likely that someone scores.
• Returning to the old “golden goal” rule, where the first goal scored in extra time immediately wins the match. It was tried before but eventually abandoned.

The idea of reducing the number of players during extra time is particularly interesting and something FIFA could consider. It keeps the outcome based on actual football rather than a separate penalty contest.

While penalty kicks will continue to be used during the remainder of the 2026 tournament, based on persistent criticism of the system, FIFA should continue exploring ways to decide knockout matches through open play whenever possible.

After all, the World Cup should ideally be decided by football itself — not just by whichever team can take five penalties more accurately.

Meanwhile, most football officials believe penalty shootouts are fairer than deciding a match by chance through a coin toss or requiring a replay, which is difficult to fit into today’s crowded international calendar.