The Penalty Test
Lessons for Executives and Board Members from football's most studied pressure moments
Across every World Cup shootout played between 1982 and 2022, professional penalty takers converted 69.4% of their kicks. During normal play, over the same distance, against the same goalkeepers, the conversion rate sits around 79%.
Ten percentage points, gone. Same distance, same ball, same goalkeeper restrictions. The only variable that changes is what the kick is worth. It is one of the cleanest measurements of pressure ever produced in professional sport.
