Can a goalkeeper be substituted during penalties?

Picture it: the referee has already given the penalty. Play is stopped, everyone is waiting, and the goalkeeper is flat on the turf, clearly not getting up. The bench sends on a replacement keeper, who trots onto the pitch, takes position between the posts, and prepares to face the kick himself. That is not a loophole being exploited. It is exactly what the rules allow.

Yes, a goalkeeper can be substituted during the stoppage before a penalty is taken, provided they genuinely cannot continue. The Laws of the Game treat this like any other injury substitution: it has to happen in a stoppage, the referee has to be told before it happens, and the team has to still have a substitution available to make.

IFAB's Laws of the Game, in Law 3: The Players, spell out almost this exact scenario, only with a defender rather than a keeper: "A defender commits a careless foul inside their penalty area and goes down with an injury. After the referee stops play for a penalty kick, the defender leaves the field of play and is not able to continue. Their team wants to replace the injured player with a substitute before the penalty kick is taken. Is this allowed? Yes, a substitution can be made during a stoppage in play, assuming the defending team has not used all its permitted substitutes and/or substitution opportunities (where such a restriction exists)." A goalkeeper who cannot carry on before a penalty falls under the same wording, the stoppage is already there, waiting for the kick to be taken, and a substitution fits neatly inside it.

What makes this worth knowing is what happens next. The player coming on is not some emergency stand-in with limited rights. Law 3 is direct about it: "Once the substitute enters the field of play, they become a player and are eligible to take any restart, including the penalty kick." So the new goalkeeper does not just occupy the goal for the sake of appearances, he is fully entitled to dive, save, or concede the kick like any keeper who started the match. There is no half-eligible status once he has crossed the touchline.

The catch sits with substitutes, not with penalties. A named substitute who is sent off before kick-off, or after it but before ever coming on, cannot be replaced by anyone else. If a team has already used up its substitutes and substitution opportunities elsewhere in the match, or has lost one to a red card while still on the bench, there may be nobody left to send on when the recognised keeper goes down injured in the penalty area. In that situation an outfield player would have to go in goal instead, gloves or no gloves, because the Laws that allow the swap only work if a fit, eligible substitute is actually still available.