William Mc Crum - The Penalty Kick

The Penalty Kick

It was in his role as member of the Irish Football Association that McCrum proposed the idea of the penalty kick in order to stop the prevalent practice at the time of defenders professionally fouling an attacking player in order to stop a goal. The idea was submitted to the June 1890 meeting of the International Football Association Board by the Irish FA's general secretary and IFAB representative Jack Reid.

The original proposal read: If any player shall intentionally trip or hold an opposing player, or deliberately handle the ball within twelve yards from his own goal line, the referee shall, on appeal, award the opposing side a penalty kick, to be taken from any point 12 yards from the goal line, under the following conditions: All players, with the exception of the player taking the penalty kick and the goalkeeper, shall stand behind the ball and at least six yards from it; the ball shall be in play when the kick is taken. A goal may be scored from a penalty kick.

The proposal initially generated much derision and indignation amongst footballers and the press as the 'Irishman's motion' or the 'death penalty' as it was known, conceded that players might deliberately act unsportingly. This went against the Victorian idea of the amateur gentleman sportsman. Public opinion may have changed after an FA Cup quarter final between Stoke City and Notts County on 14 February 1891 where an indirect free kick after a deliberate handball on the goal line did not result in a goal.

The penalty kick rule was approved as number 13 in the Laws of the Game, a year after it was proposed, on the 2 June 1891, at the Alexandra Hotel, Bath St., in Glasgow 'after considerable discussion' and with changes affecting where the goalkeeper and other players could legally stand.

In 1998 Gary Lineker made a documentary for the BBC on William McCrum and the penalty kick.