Is it true that the word "penalty" comes from an Irish surname?

Among Russian-speaking football fans, it is widely believed that the 11-meter kick was invented by the Irishman John McPenalty. We checked whether this is actually true.

In different sources, the degree of participation of John McPenalty, as well as his occupation and status, is assessed differently. For example, a user of the “Big Question” portal reports: “The term “penalty” was introduced by the Irishman John McPenalty, who was once a football expert.” In a Facebook group dedicated to the Spartak football club, one of the fans writesthat "John McPenalty played football, was a member of the Irish Football Association and was involved in football rules in it." Another thematic resource assertsthat this is just one of the versions.

A search on the Internet for a man named John McPenalty did not produce results - he is mentioned only in some Russian-language publications dedicated to the appearance of the 11-meter kick, but not in authoritative sources. For several years McPenalty even called the possible inventor of the blow in the Russian-language Wikipedia, but the authors of the online encyclopedia made a note that this person may never have existed. Now McPenalty does not appear in the article at all.

If you search for this combination of first and last names, typed in Latin, then one of the few authoritative sources in the search results is article 1970 in the German edition of Der Spiegel. Its author writes: “More than a hundred years ago, the Irish creator of the rule, John McPenalty, invented the penalty kick as compensation for scoring chances that the opponent neutralized with a foul or handball in his own penalty area.” At the very least, the journalist made a mistake with the dating of the invention of the penalty kick - this kick added into the rules only in 1891, that is, less than 80 years before the note was written. Judging by the fact that John McPenalty is never mentioned anywhere else in the context of football, this man really did not exist.

In fact, the initiative to introduce penalties was proposed by a member of the Irish Football Association, William McCrum, who played in the Milford football club as a goalkeeper. He was concerned that at that time defenders deliberately fouled forwards to prevent a goal, and in 1890 McCrum's initiative supported association colleagues. A year later, the penalty clause contributed to the official rules of the game. By the way, at that time the referee awarded a penalty only after a corresponding request from the “injured” team, and the kick could be struck from any point at a distance of 12 yards from the goal line. The etymology of the word “penalty” is extremely simple: it is happening from the English penalty (“punishment”).

Cover photo: FIFA/Getty Images

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Are football penalties named after John McPenalty?
2. Arzamas. Podcast "What is the meaning of football"
3. The development of football rules