Only half of the teams in the DStv Premiership have received a penalty this season as we reach the midway point, while there have been just 15 spot-kicks in all among the 16 teams.

That is a penalty every 7.73 games, compared to one every 3.71 in the English Premiership (essentially double the rate), 3.33 in France’s Ligue 1, 3.27 in LaLiga, 3.04 in Serie A and every 2.38 games in the German Bundesliga.

This is not a call for more penalties to be awarded in the DStv Premiership, but it is interesting that the ratio is way off the major leagues in Europe.
Perhaps that has to do with better attackers and the quicker pace of those leagues, which leads to more errors from defending sides, or maybe the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) adds to the tally by correcting errors from match officials.

It is highly likely that we would have more in the DStv Premiership if refereeing decisions in the penalty area were checked. It is clear that South African officials take a cautious approach.

Sundowns have received the most penalties with four, which is perhaps not surprising. The more you attack, the more likely you are to receive a spot-kick because you spend more time in the opposition’s box.

Their ratio is one every three games (four in 12 matches actually played), which is on a par with those European leagues.

Lamontville Golden Arrows, TS Galaxy, Richards Bay and Orlando Pirates have all received two spot-kicks so far, the latter two netting both and the former duo missing one each. AmaZulu, SuperSport United and Cape Town City have all had a single penalty.

That means there have been no spot-kicks awarded to Stellenbosch FC, Kaizer Chiefs, Polokwane City, Moroka Swallows, Chippa United, Royal AM, Sekhukhune United and Cape Town Spurs.

Chiefs is surprise, they had the most penalties last season with 10 (seven scored), followed by Stellenbosch and Golden Arrows (five each). Sundowns had just two.
There were a total of 54 penalties awarded in 240 games in 2022/23, an average of one every 4.44 matches.