In football, the penalty spot is placed at what distance from the goal line?

The correct answer is B, twelve yards. The penalty mark in football is twelve yards, about eleven metres, from the midpoint of the goal line, and a penalty kick is taken from that spot with only the goalkeeper defending. This measurement is among the handful of numbers from the laws of the game that examiners ask directly.

Option A, ten yards, is the distance at which defending players must stand back from the ball at a free kick, so it is a real number from the same game but the wrong one here. Option C, fifteen yards, corresponds to nothing fixed in the laws and is placed only as a plausible distractor. Option D, eighteen yards, is the depth of the penalty area itself, which extends eighteen yards from the goal line and is often loosely called the eighteen yard box, which is the source of the confusion.