The short answer
Yellow cards shown during normal time or extra time are not carried forward into a penalty shoot-out. A player who was cautioned during the match therefore begins the shoot-out without that card counting toward a second-yellow dismissal.
The card is not erased from the match report. The International Football Association Board says the cautions are recorded separately. The reset changes how a later caution is treated, not whether the earlier misconduct happened.
Why the rule changes at the final whistle
The Laws of the Game treat a penalty shoot-out as a method for determining the winner after the match has ended. It is not another period of the match in the same way as extra time.
That legal boundary explains the reset. A first caution during the shoot-out is treated as the player's first caution in that procedure, even if the same player received one during the preceding 120 minutes.
A caution after extra time can be the first shoot-out card
IFAB gives an example in which a previously cautioned player shows dissent after the referee has ended extra time. Because the match is over and the shoot-out is beginning, the new yellow is treated as the player's first caution in the shoot-out.
The player is not sent off for combining that card with the earlier match caution. Both incidents are still reported to the appropriate authorities, which preserves the disciplinary record even though the cards belong to separate phases.
Red cards do not receive the same reset
A player sent off before the shoot-out cannot return to take a kick. If a player is shown a direct red during the shoot-out, that player is dismissed and the opposing team reduces its eligible group to keep the numbers equal.
The rule is therefore not a general amnesty. It prevents one match caution and one shoot-out caution from automatically combining, while serious misconduct and dismissals continue to affect who may participate.
Goalkeepers are covered by the same principle
A goalkeeper cautioned during the match is not automatically sent off after receiving a first caution in the shoot-out. IFAB uses this exact situation to explain that the two cautions remain separate.
Goalkeepers can still be warned or cautioned for offences during kicks, including repeated encroachment under the applicable procedure. The reset does not remove the referee's authority to manage behaviour and enforce the rules.
The easiest way to remember it
Normal time and extra time form the match. The shoot-out begins after the match and uses its own caution count. A yellow before the final whistle and a yellow during the shoot-out are recorded, but they do not combine into a second-yellow red card.
A direct red remains a dismissal, and a player can still be dismissed for offences during the shoot-out. The yellow-card reset is a narrow procedural rule, not permission to ignore discipline once the kicks begin.
Sources and further reading
This article was written for Curiosity Desk. We do not copy other publishers or invent quotes. If a material error is found, we correct it openly.
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