10 teams that have received the most penalties in a single season in the 21st century
Football, like life, is a game of probabilities. There is never a 100% chance of reaching a specific outcome as every single pass can determine how a move will pan out.
The concept of a penalty-kick is a welcome departure from the norm in the game as it provides the team being awarded the spot-kick with a 50-50 chance of scoring what might be a decisive goal.
The impact of penalties are not limited just to a single game. If a team earns and converts them regularly, penalties can even have a huge impact in deciding the outcome of the season for that team.
Here, we take a look at the top 10 sides that have received the most penalties in a season across all competitions in the 21st century.
T6. AS Roma - 17 Penalties (51 games) | 2010-11
We have as many as five Italian sides occupying a spot on the top 10 list and the first one tied at sixth-place is AS Roma's 2010-11 team. The capital club received 17 penalties that season and ended up converting 14 of them, with Francesco Totti scoring 12 of those.
Roma lost only one of the matches in which they found the back of the net from the penalty spot. They had finished sixth in the Serie A that season and if not for the spot-kicks, could've missed out on qualification for the Europa League.
T6. AS Roma - 17 Penalties (49 games) | 2019-20
Of the five Italian sides on this list, four of them only joined the top 10 this season, thanks to what has been a record-breaking season in the Serie A which saw the highest number of penalties awarded.
The previous record before this season was of 140 spot-kicks awarded in the 1949-50 season which was demolished this time around, with a whopping 187 penalties awarded, courtesy of VAR's ability to have a direct influence on the refereeing decisions during games.
One of the benefactors of these penalties were AS Roma, who received 17 penalties in a season for the third time in their top-flight history and scored 15 times from the spot.
T6. Genoa FC - 17 Penalties (41 games) | 2019-20
Genoa were probably the biggest benefactors of the penalties awarded this Serie A season. Like AS Roma, they won 17 penalties this season but had played eight fewer games than the Giallorossi.
Though they had a modest 70% success from the spot, they earned 17 crucial points from the games in which they scored a penalty. This went a long way in securing their top-flight status as they finished their season just above the relegation zone in the 2019-20 campaign with 39 points.
Also See: 10 teams that have conceded the fewest goals in the 21st century