When the penalty kick arrived in 1891, Corinthian, the gentlemen's club of London, supposedly let penalties in on purpose and missed their own. We checked the legend against the club's own 1906 book, a 2024 history paper and Brazilian newspapers from 1910.

The keeper never leaned on the post. But once, on a 1907 tour of South Africa, Corinthian really did refuse to score, and got told off for it. Plus England's white shirts, Real Madrid's, and how a Brazilian giant got its name.

In this video
0:00 The legend
0:45 A club for gentlemen
2:21 The penalty arrives
3:24 A standing insult
4:35 The goalkeeper on the post
5:47 South Africa, 1907
6:40 England and Real Madrid in white
7:26 Brazil, 1910
8:35 The fall
9:27 The penalty today

Where the stories come from
Bolsmann and Porter, 'The Most Famous Amateur Football Club in the World', History (2024): https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.13409
B. O. Corbett, Annals of the Corinthian Football Club (1906): https://archive.org/details/annalscor...
RSSSF: Corinthian's 1910 tour of Brazil: https://rsssf.org/tablesc/corinthians...
FIFA Museum: Scotland v England, 1872: https://www.fifamuseum.com/en/explore...
Corinthian-Casuals: history of the Corinthians: https://www.corinthian-casuals.com/hi...
UEFA statement on the Álvarez penalty, March 2025: https://www.uefa.com/news-media/news/...
The FA: Law 14, the penalty kick (2026/27): https://www.thefa.com/-/media/files/t...

Pictures and credits
Alexandre Breveglieri, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
grassrootsgroundswell, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
grassrootsgroundswell, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Stock footage: Pexels
Archive photos and engravings: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Maps: Natural Earth (public domain)

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