The penalty kick was first proposed to the Football Association as a drastic sanction against dangerous conduct in 1891. Tabled by an amateur goalkeeper from Armagh, it was rejected as an affront to the nobility of the game. How, in a sport played by gentlemen, could there be any foul play? It was, they said, an insult to assume that “players intend to behave like cads”.
The toffs who ran the FA disdained the penalty kick as “the Irishman’s motion”, and took some persuading to accept Rule 13. But they weren’t wrong. The measure was inspired by the edgy, ruthless, and egalitarian spirit of Northern Ireland.
