The Average Number of Free-Kicks in a Football Match

Despite what you may think and what the performances of Premier League referees might lead you to believe, officials are there to uphold the Laws of the Game. If a player breaks one of those laws then the referee will take action, with one of the actions that happens is the awarding of a free kick. This is a way of re-starting the match that punishes the team of the offending player and rewards the team that suffered on account of what they did, offering a chance for a shot at goal, say, or to pump the ball into the box if it’s a tall team hoping to win the first ball.

As anyone who watched the likes of David Beckham, James Ward-Prowse or Luis Suarez play football will know, there are certain players who are expert free kick takers. They can, at the very least, test the goalkeeper, often managing to put the ball into the back of the net with the kick that they take. There are other teams that simply want to get the ball into the mixer with a free kick or use it as an opportunity to waste as much time as possible. Running the clock down can be just as important a use of a free kick as what you actually do with it. Here is a look at how many tend to be given in a match.

Total Free Kicks in the Premier League

Before we take an in-depth look at how things worked out for each team during recent seasons in the Premier League, we will first take a wider view, looking at the total for each season, so you can get a sense of how many free-kicks a referee is likely to give away during a game on average:

Premier League Free Kicks by Season – 2018-19 to 2022-23

Season	Free-Kicks	Average Per Match
2022-23	9,300	24.47
2021-22	8,778	23.10
2020-21	9,361	24.63
2019-20	9,244	24.32
2018-19	9,109	23.97
Total	45,792	24.10

In total, there were 45,792 free-kicks given away during the five seasons that we’re looking at. With 1,900 matches played during that time period, it equates to an average of 24.10 free-kicks per game over those five campaigns, which can be extrapolated over other seasons as we’ve looked as a decent period of time there.

How Many Free Kicks Become Goals?

Teams will use a certain portion of their free-kicks in order to have an attempt at goal. This is usually quite a small portion, relatively speaking, but how many of them actually end up in the back of the net?

The short answer is: not many. Below is a look at each of the seasons that we’ve been focussing on, telling you how many free kicks there were, how many of those free kicks were attempts at goal, and how many actually ended up being goals.

Premier League Goals from Free Kicks – 2018-19 to 2022-23

Season	Free Kicks	Goal Attempts	Goals
2022-23	9,300	301 (3.24%)	17 (0.18%)
2021-22	8,778	337 (3.84%)	19 (0.22%)
2020-21	9,361	359 (3.84%)	13 (0.14%)
2019-20	8,865	379 (4.28%)	26 (0.29%)
2018-19	9,109	354 (3.89%)	23 (0.25%)
Total	45,413	1,730 (3.81%)	98 (0.22%)

In other words, if your team gets a free-kick in general, there is a 0.22% chance that it will end in a goal, on average.

We can also look at the conversion rate of free kick goal attempts to goals scored directly from a free kick.

If they are in position to actually make an attempt at goal, there is a 5.66% chance that they will score it, on average. We all get excited when our team wins a free kick in what we would consider to be a dangerous position, but across five Premier League campaigns it is fairly clear that goals aren’t actually all that likely.

Some Players Are More Likely To Score Than Others

As you might imagine, some footballers are better than others when it comes to scoring goals from free kicks. There are many that have made a career out of, with the following being the players that scored two or more goals from dead-ball situations across the five seasons in question:

As you can see, there are clearly some free kick specialists in the league, with no one managing to do better than James Ward-Prowse from a dead-ball situation. What we can’t tell you is how many attempts at goal the players had before they managed to find the back of the net, but it is fair to say that if certain players are lining up to take the free kick then there is more chance of a goal than if someone else is trying to take it.

Premier League Free Kicks by Club

We now know how many free-kicks are taken in a Premier League football match on average. Next, we can look at the number of free-kicks that are taken during the course of a season by each club. Here is a look at five Premier League campaigns between 2018-19 and 2022-23, investigating how many free-kicks each of the teams took:

2022-23 Season Free Kicks

Team	Passes	Shots	Total	Av. Per Game
Arsenal	516	16	532	14.00
Aston Villa	599	18	617	16.23
Bournemouth	424	14	438	11.53
Brentford	453	14	467	12.29
Brighton & Hove Albion	445	12	457	12.03
Chelsea	503	10	513	13.50
Crystal Palace	525	23	548	14.42
Everton	434	12	446	11.74
Fulham	471	17	488	12.84
Leeds United	484	19	503	13.24
Leicester City	464	14	478	12.58
Liverpool	416	7	423	11.13
Manchester City	440	20	460	12.11
Manchester United	325	20	345	9.08
Newcastle United	447	15	462	12.16
Nottingham Forest	446	9	455	11.97
Southampton	426	17	443	11.66
Tottenham Hotspur	404	13	417	10.97
West Ham United	347	13	360	9.47
Wolverhampton Wanderers	430	18	448	11.79
Total	8,999	301	9,300	24.47

During the 2022-23 campaign, there were 9,300 free-kicks taken in total. Of those, 301 were attempts at goal, which is 3.24% of the total.

In terms of the average number of free-kicks per match, there were 380 games played during the season, meaning 24.47 free-kicks on average for each 90 minutes.

2021-2022 Season Free Kicks

Team	Passes	Shots	Total	Av. Per Game
Arsenal	404	21	425	11.18
Aston Villa	525	20	545	14.34
Brentford	432	11	443	11.66
Brighton & Hove Albion	390	15	405	10.66
Burnley	370	14	384	10.11
Chelsea	434	26	460	12.11
Crystal Palace	528	13	541	14.24
Everton	413	18	431	11.34
Leeds United	417	13	430	11.32
Leicester City	457	14	471	12.39
Liverpool	436	13	449	11.82
Manchester City	406	17	423	11.13
Manchester United	376	19	395	10.39
Newcastle United	415	15	430	11.32
Norwich City	474	18	492	12.95
Southampton	411	24	435	11.45
Tottenham Hotspur	430	16	446	11.74
Watford	394	24	418	11.00
West Ham United	309	13	322	8.47
Wolverhampton Wanderers	420	13	433	11.39
Total	8,441	337	8,778	23.10

With 8,778 free-kicks taken in the 2021-22 season, you can see it’s down slightly on the 2022-23 campaign. Of those, 337 were attempts at goal, which works out as 3.84% of all free-kicks being shots.

In terms of the average number of free-kicks per game, that comes in at 23.10.

2020-2021 Season Free Kicks

Team	Passes	Shots	Total	Av. Per Game
Arsenal	440	23	463	12.18
Aston Villa	590	16	606	15.95
Brighton & Hove Albion	404	15	419	11.03
Burnley	461	15	476	12.53
Chelsea	402	16	418	11.00
Crystal Palace	473	18	491	12.92
Everton	426	15	441	11.61
Fulham	469	12	481	12.66
Leeds United	467	9	476	12.53
Leicester City	474	20	494	13.00
Liverpool	404	22	426	11.21
Manchester City	423	21	444	11.68
Manchester United	433	21	454	11.95
Newcastle United	464	25	489	12.87
Sheffield United	347	5	350	9.21
Southampton	496	20	516	13.58
Tottenham Hotspur	524	35	559	14.71
West Bromwich Albion	463	16	479	12.61
West Ham United	398	17	415	10.92
Wolverhampton Wanderers	444	18	462	12.16
Total	9,002	359	9,361	24.63

The 2020-21 campaign was an unusual one, with most of it played behind closed doors due to the global health situation of the time. Did it change what happened to free kicks? There wasn’t a huge different in the 2021-20 season compared to those that would come after, with 9,361 free kicks taken in total. Of those, 359 were attempts at goal, which works out as 3.84%.

On average, there were 24.63 free-kicks per game during the season.

2019-2020 Season Free Kicks

Team	Passes	Shots	Total	Av. Per Game
Arsenal	487	19	506	13.32
Aston Villa	562	21	583	15.34
Bournemouth	450	21	471	12.39
Brighton & Hove Albion	394	11	405	10.66
Burnley	408	18	426	11.21
Chelsea	401	29	430	11.32
Crystal Palace	501	15	516	13.58
Everton	463	20	483	12.71
Leicester City	495	20	515	13.55
Liverpool	440	20	460	12.11
Manchester City	352	27	379	9.97
Manchester United	466	33	499	13.13
Newcastle United	463	14	477	12.55
Norwich City	461	16	477	12.55
Sheffield United	375	4	379	9.97
Southampton	448	27	475	12.50
Tottenham Hotspur	464	21	485	12.76
Watford	398	18	416	10.95
West Ham United	432	13	445	11.71
Wolverhampton Wanderers	405	12	417	10.97
Total	8,865	379	9,244	24.33

The 2019-20 campaign was unusual, insomuch as it saw a break arrive towards the end and the final few games were played behind-closed-doors thanks to the global health crisis. It was Liverpool’s first Premier League title since the re-brand, but how did it work out in terms of free kicks?

With 9,244 free kicks taken in total across the 2019-20 campaign, 379 of them were attempts to score a goal. That works out as 4.10%, which is the most we’ve seen so far.

The average number of free kicks awarded per match worked out at 24.33, which is in line with the other seasons we’ve looked at so far.

2018-2019 Season Free Kicks

Team	Passes	Shots	Total	Av. Per Game
Arsenal	543	11	554	14.58
Bournemouth	512	16	528	13.89
Brighton & Hove Albion	330	12	342	9.00
Burnley	395	14	409	10.76
Cardiff City	423	13	436	11.47
Chelsea	471	30	501	13.18
Crystal Palace	435	16	451	11.87
Everton	495	20	515	13.55
Fulham	412	10	422	11.11
Huddersfield Town	444	15	459	12.08
Leicester City	453	19	472	12.42
Liverpool	463	20	483	12.71
Manchester City	344	21	365	9.61
Manchester United	435	27	462	12.16
Newcastle United	389	16	405	10.66
Southampton	409	20	429	11.29
Tottenham Hotspur	457	23	480	12.63
Watford	483	22	505	13.29
West Ham United	501	17	518	13.63
Wolverhampton Wanderers	361	12	373	9.82
Total	8,755	354	9,109	23.97

The final season that we’ve looked at is the 2018-19 campaign. There were 9,109 free kicks taken during the 2018-19 season, with 354 of them being shots on goal. That equates to 3.89% of the shots in total.

Over the course of the season, the average number of free-kicks given in a match was 23.97.