Champions League mishap forces changes to penalty rules
Double-touched penalties, such as the disallowed kick by Julian Alvarez that helped knock Atletico Madrid out of the Champions League, should in future be retaken.
An incident in this season's UEFA Champions League round of 16 has forced changes to the manner in which penalties are taken.
Double-touched penalties, such as the disallowed kick by Julian Alvarez that helped knock Atletico Madrid out of the Champions League, should in future be retaken, international football's rule-making body said on Tuesday.
"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, the secretary of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in a circular.
It did occur in the Champions League round-of-16 second matchup between Atletico and Real Madrid in March, handing Real an unfair advantage as had been alleged by Atletico.
On his attempt, Alvarez slipped but still found the net. Video review detected that he touched the ball twice as he shot.
The referee ruled the shot a miss under Law 14, which deals with the penalty kick, and Real went on to win 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".
"As it is not directly covered in Law 14, referees have understandably tended to penalise the kicker for having touched the ball again," wrote Brud.
