Association football, more commonly known as
football or
soccer, is a
team sport played between two teams of eleven
players using a spherical
ball. It
is widely considered to be the most popular sport in the
world.
The game is played on a rectangular grass or
artificial turf field, with a
goal in the centre of each of the short ends.
The object of the game is to score by driving the ball into the
opposing goal. In general play, the
goalkeepers are the only
players allowed to use their hands or arms to propel the ball; the
rest of the team usually use their feet to
kick the ball into position, occasionally
using their
torso or head to intercept a ball
in midair. The team that scores the most goals by the end of the
match wins. If the score is tied at the end of the game, either a
draw is declared or the game goes into
extra time and/or a
penalty shootout,
depending on the format of the competition.
The modern
game was codified in England
following
the formation of The Football
Association, whose 1863 Laws of the
Game created the foundations for the way the sport is played
today. Football is governed internationally by the
Fédération Internationale de Football
Association
(International Federation of Association Football),
commonly known by the acronym FIFA. The most prestigious
international football competition is the
FIFA World Cup, held every four years. This
event, the most widely viewed in the world, boasts an audience
twice that of the
Summer Olympic
Games.
Overview
A goalkeeper saving a close-range shot
from inside the penalty area
Football is played in accordance with a set of rules known as the
Laws of the Game. The game is
played using a single spherical ball, known as the
football. Two teams of eleven players
each compete to get the ball into the other team's goal (between
the posts and under the bar), thereby scoring a goal. The team that
has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner; if both
teams have scored an equal number of goals then the game is a draw.
Each team is led by a
captain.
The primary law is that players (other than
goalkeepers) may not deliberately
handle the ball with their hands or arms during play (though they
do use their hands during a
throw-in
restart). Although players usually use their feet to move the ball
around, they may use any part of their bodies other than their
hands or arms. Within normal play, all players are free to play the
ball in any direction and move throughout the pitch, though the
ball cannot be received in an
offside position.
In typical game play, players attempt to create goal scoring
opportunities through individual control of the ball, such as by
dribbling, passing the ball to a
team-mate, and by taking shots at the goal, which is guarded by the
opposing goalkeeper. Opposing players may try to regain control of
the ball by intercepting a pass or through tackling the opponent in
possession of the ball; however, physical contact between opponents
is restricted. Football is generally a free-flowing game, with play
stopping only when the ball has left the field of play or when play
is stopped by the
referee. After
a stoppage, play recommences with a specified restart.
At a professional level, most matches produce only a few goals. For
example, the
2005–06
season of the English
Premier
League produced an average of 2.48 goals per match. The Laws of
the Game do not specify any player positions other than goalkeeper,
but a number of
specialised roles have
evolved. Broadly, these include three main categories:
strikers, or forwards, whose main task is to score
goals;
defenders, who specialise
in preventing their opponents from scoring; and
midfielders, who dispossess the opposition and
keep possession of the ball in order to pass it to the forwards on
their team. Players in these positions are referred to as outfield
players, in order to discern them from the single goalkeeper. These
positions are further subdivided according to the area of the field
in which the player spends most time. For example, there are
central defenders, and left and right midfielders. The ten outfield
players may be arranged in any combination. The number of players
in each position determines the style of the team's play; more
forwards and fewer defenders creates a more aggressive and
offensive-minded game, while the reverse creates a slower, more
defensive style of play. While players typically spend most of the
game in a specific position, there are few restrictions on player
movement, and players can switch positions at any time. The layout
of a team's players is known as a
formation. Defining the team's
formation and tactics is usually the prerogative of the team's
manager.
History
Map showing the popularity of football
around the world.
Countries where football is the most popular sport are
coloured green, while countries where it is not are coloured
red.
The various shades of green and red indicate the number of
players per 1,000 inhabitants.
The modern rules of football are based on the mid-19th century
efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played
at the public schools of England.
The
Cambridge Rules, first drawn up at
Cambridge
University
in 1848, were particularly influential in the
development of subsequent codes, including association
football. The Cambridge Rules were written at Trinity College,
Cambridge
, at a meeting attended by representatives from
Eton
, Harrow
, Rugby
, Winchester
and Shrewsbury
schools. They were not universally adopted.
During the 1850s, many clubs unconnected to schools or universities
were formed throughout the English-speaking world, to play various
forms of football. Some came up with their own distinct codes of
rules, most notably the
Sheffield
Football Club, formed by former public school pupils in 1857,
which led to formation of a
Sheffield
FA in 1867.
In 1862, John Charles
Thring of Uppingham
School
also devised an influential set of
rules.
These
ongoing efforts contributed to the formation of The Football Association (The FA)
in 1863, which first met on the morning of 26 October 1863 at the
Freemasons'
Tavern
in Great Queen Street
, London
.
The only
school to be represented on this occasion was Charterhouse
. The Freemason's Tavern was the setting for
five more meetings between October and December, which eventually
produced the first comprehensive set of rules. At the final
meeting, the first FA treasurer, the representative from
Blackheath, withdrew his club from the
FA over the removal of two draft rules at the previous meeting, the
first which allowed for the running with the ball in hand and the
second, obstructing such a run by hacking (kicking an opponent in
the shins), tripping and holding. Other
English rugby football clubs followed
this lead and did not join the FA, or subsequently left the FA
and instead in 1871 formed the
Rugby Football Union. The eleven
remaining clubs, under the charge of
Ebenezer Cobb Morley, went on to ratify
the original thirteen laws of the game. These rules included
handling of the ball by "marks" and the lack of a crossbar, rules
which made it remarkably similar to
Victorian rules football being
developed at that time in Australia. The Sheffield FA played by its
own rules until the 1870s with the FA absorbing some of its rules
until there was little difference between the games.
The laws of the game are currently determined by the
International Football
Association Board (IFAB).
The Board was formed in 1886 after a meeting
in Manchester
of The Football Association, the Scottish Football Association,
the Football Association
of Wales, and the Irish
Football Association. The world's oldest football
competition is the
FA Cup, which was founded
by
C. W.
Alcock and has been contested by
English teams since 1872.
The first official international football
match took place in 1872 between Scotland and England in
Glasgow
, again at
the instigation of C. W. Alcock.
England is home to
the world's first football
league, which was founded in Birmingham
in 1888 by Aston
Villa director William
McGregor. The original format contained 12 clubs from
the Midlands and the North of England.
The Fédération
Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international
football body, was formed in Paris
in 1904 and
declared that they would adhere to Laws of the Game of the Football
Association. The growing popularity of the international
game led to the admittance of FIFA representatives to the
International Football
Association Board in 1913. The board currently consists of four
representatives from FIFA and one representative from each of the
four British associations.
Today, football is played at a professional level all over the
world. Millions of people regularly go to football stadiums to
follow their favourite teams, while billions more watch the game on
television. A very large number of people also play football at an
amateur level. According to a survey conducted by FIFA published in
2001, over 240 million people from more than 200 countries
regularly play football. Its simple rules and minimal equipment
requirements have no doubt aided its spread and growth in
popularity.
In many parts of the world football evokes great passions and plays
an important role in the life of individual
fan, local communities, and even nations;
it is therefore often claimed to be the most popular sport in the
world.
ESPN has spread the claim that the
Côte d'Ivoire
national football team helped secure a truce to the nation's
civil war in 2005.
By contrast, football is widely considered
to be the final proximate cause in the Football War in June 1969 between El Salvador
and Honduras
. The sport also exacerbated tensions at the
beginning of the
Yugoslav wars of the
1990s, when a match between
Dinamo
Zagreb and
Red Star Belgrade
devolved into rioting in March 1990.
Laws
There are seventeen laws in the official
Laws of the Game. The same laws are
designed to apply to all levels of football, although certain
modifications for groups such as juniors, seniors, women and the
physically challenged are permitted. The laws are often framed in
broad terms, which allow flexibility in their application depending
on the nature of the game. In addition to the seventeen laws,
numerous IFAB decisions and other directives contribute to the
regulation of football. The Laws of the Game are published by FIFA,
but are maintained by the
International Football
Association Board, not FIFA itself. The most complex of the
laws is
offside. The offside law
limits the ability of attacking players to remain forward (i.e.
closer to the opponent's goal line) of the ball, the second-to-last
defending player (which can include the goalkeeper), and the
half-way line.
Players, equipment and officials
Each team consists of a maximum of eleven players (excluding
substitute), one of whom must
be the
goalkeeper. Competition
rules may state a minimum number of players required to constitute
a team; this is usually seven. Goalkeepers are the only players
allowed to play the ball with their hands or arms, provided they do
so within the
penalty area
in front of their own goal. Though there are a variety of
positions in which the
outfield (non-goalkeeper) players are strategically placed by a
coach, these positions are not defined or required by the
Laws.
The basic equipment or
kit players are required to
wear includes a shirt, shorts, socks, footwear and adequate
shin guards.
Headgear is not a required
piece of basic equipment, but players today may choose to wear it
to protect themselves from head injury. Players are forbidden to
wear or use anything that is dangerous to themselves or another
player, such as jewellery or watches. The goalkeeper must wear
clothing that is easily distinguishable from that worn by the other
players and the match officials.
A number of players may be replaced by substitutes during the
course of the game. The maximum number of substitutions permitted
in most competitive international and domestic league games is
three, though the permitted number may vary in other competitions
or in friendly matches. Common reasons for a substitution include
injury, tiredness, ineffectiveness, a tactical switch, or
timewasting at the end of a finely poised game.
In standard adult matches, a player who has been substituted may
not take further part in a match.
A game is officiated by a
referee, who has "full authority to
enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which
he has been appointed" (Law 5), and whose decisions are final. The
referee is assisted by two
assistant
referees. In many high-level games there is also a
fourth official who assists the referee and
may replace another official should the need arise.
Pitch
As the Laws were formulated in England, and were initially
administered solely by the four British football associations
within
IFAB, the standard dimensions of a
football pitch were originally expressed in
imperial units. The Laws now express
dimensions with approximate
metric equivalents
(followed by traditional units in brackets), though popular use
tends to continue to use traditional units in English-speaking
countries with a relatively recent history of
metrication, such as Britain.
The length of the pitch for international adult matches is in the
range 100–110 m (110–120 yd) and the width is in the
range 64–75 m (70–80 yd). Fields for non-international
matches may be 91–120 m (100–130 yd) length and
45–91 m (50–101 yd) in width, provided that the pitch
does not become square.
Since 2008, In order to standardize the size of the football pitch
for A international matches, the
IFAB has
decided to set a fixed size of
105 m long and
68 m wide (instead of a minimum and maximum
length – from 100 m to 110 m – and a minimum
and a maximum width – from 64 m to 75 m – as
mentioned in the present text). The longer boundary lines are
touchlines, while the shorter boundaries (on which the
goals are placed) are
goal lines. A rectangular goal is
positioned at the middle of each goal line. The inner edges of the
vertical goal posts must be 7.32 m (8 yd) apart, and the
lower edge of the horizontal crossbar supported by the goal posts
must be 2.44 m (8 ft) above the ground. Nets are usually
placed behind the goal, but are not required by the Laws.
In front of each goal is an area known as the
penalty area. This area is marked by the goal
line, two lines starting on the goal line 16.5 m (18 yd)
from the goalposts and extending 16.5 m (18 yd) into the
pitch perpendicular to the goal line, and a line joining them. This
area has a number of functions, the most prominent being to mark
where the goalkeeper may handle the ball and where a penalty foul
by a member of the defending team becomes punishable by a
penalty kick. Other markings define
the position of the ball or players at
kick-off, goal kicks,
penalty kicks and corner kicks.
Duration and tie-breaking methods
A standard adult football match consists of two periods of 45
minutes each, known as halves. Each half runs continuously, meaning
that the clock is not stopped when the ball is out of play. There
is usually a 15-minute half-time break between halves. The end of
the match is known as full-time.
The referee is the official timekeeper for the match, and may make
an allowance for time lost through substitutions, injured players
requiring attention, or other stoppages. This added time is
commonly referred to as
stoppage time or
injury
time, and is at the sole discretion of the referee. The
referee alone signals the end of the match. In matches where a
fourth official is appointed, toward the end of the half the
referee signals how many minutes of stoppage time he intends to
add. The fourth official then informs the players and spectators by
holding up a board showing this number. The signalled stoppage time
may be further extended by the referee. Added time was introduced
because of an incident which happened in 1891 during a match
between
Stoke and
Aston Villa. Trailing 1–0 and with just two
minutes remaining, Stoke were awarded a penalty. Villa's goalkeeper
kicked the ball out of the ground, and by the time the ball had
been recovered, the 90 minutes had elapsed and the game was
over.
In league competitions, games may end in a draw, but in some
knockout competitions if a game is tied at the end of regulation
time it may go into extra time, which consists of two further
15-minute periods. If the score is still tied after extra time,
some competitions allow the use of
penalty shootouts (known
officially in the Laws of the Game as "kicks from the penalty
mark") to determine which team will progress to the next stage of
the tournament. Goals scored during extra time periods count toward
the final score of the game, but kicks from the penalty mark are
only used to decide the team that progresses to the next part of
the tournament (with goals scored in a penalty shootout not making
up part of the final score).
In competitions using
two-legged
matches, each team competes at home once, with an aggregate
score from the two matches deciding which team progresses. Where
aggregates are equal, the
away goals
rule may be used to determine the winners, in which case the
winner is the team that scored the most goals in the leg played
away from home. If the result is still equal, kicks from the
penalty mark are usually required, though some competitions may
require a tied game to be replayed.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the
IFAB
experimented with ways of creating a winner without requiring a
penalty shootout, which was often seen as an undesirable way to end
a match. These involved rules ending a game in extra time early,
either when the first goal in extra time was scored (
golden goal), or if one team held a lead at
the end of the first period of extra time (
silver goal). Golden goal was used at the
World Cup in
1998 and
2002. The first World Cup game decided
by a golden goal was
France's victory over
Paraguay in 1998.
Germany was the first nation
to score a golden goal in a major competition, beating
Czech Republic in the
final of
Euro 1996. Silver goal was used
in
Euro 2004. Both these experiments have
been discontinued by IFAB.
Ball in and out of play
Under the Laws, the two basic states of play during a game are
ball in play and
ball out of play. From the
beginning of each playing period with a kick-off until the end of
the playing period, the ball is in play at all times, except when
either the ball leaves the field of play, or play is stopped by the
referee. When the ball becomes out of play, play is restarted by
one of eight restart methods depending on how it went out of play:
A player about to take a free
kick
- Kick-off: following a goal by the opposing team, or to begin
each period of play.
- Throw-in: when the ball has wholly
crossed the touchline; awarded to opposing team to that which last
touched the ball.
- Goal kick: when the ball has wholly
crossed the goal line without a goal having been scored and having
last been touched by a player of the attacking team; awarded to
defending team.
- Corner kick: when the ball has
wholly crossed the goal line without a goal having been scored and
having last been touched by a player of the defending team; awarded
to attacking team.
- Indirect free kick: awarded
to the opposing team following "non-penal" fouls, certain technical
infringements, or when play is stopped to caution or send-off an
opponent without a specific foul having occurred. A goal may not be
scored directly from an indirect free kick.
- Direct free kick: awarded to
fouled team following certain listed "penal" fouls.
- Penalty kick: awarded to
the fouled team following a foul usually punishable by a direct
free kick but that has occurred within their opponent's penalty
area.
- Dropped-ball: occurs when the
referee has stopped play for any other reason, such as a serious
injury to a player, interference by an external party, or a ball
becoming defective. This restart is uncommon in adult games.
Misconduct
A
foul occurs when a player commits
an offence listed in the Laws of the Game while the ball is in
play. The offences that constitute a foul are listed in Law 12.
Handling the ball deliberately, tripping an opponent, or pushing an
opponent, are examples of "penal fouls", punishable by a
direct free kick or
penalty kick depending on where the
offence occurred. Other fouls are punishable by an
indirect free kick.
The referee may punish a player or substitute's
misconduct by a caution (
yellow card) or sending-off (
red card). A second yellow card at the same
game leads to a red card, and therefore to a sending-off. A player
given a yellow card is said to have been "booked", the referee
writing the player's name in his official notebook.
A player scores a penalty kick given
after an offence is committed inside the penalty area
If a player has been sent off, no substitute can be brought on in
their place. Misconduct may occur at any time, and while the
offences that constitute misconduct are listed, the definitions are
broad. In particular, the offence of "unsporting behaviour" may be
used to deal with most events that violate the spirit of the game,
even if they are not listed as specific offences. A referee can
show a yellow or red card to a player, substitute or substituted
player. Non-players such as managers and support staff cannot be
shown the yellow or red card, but may be expelled from the
technical area if they fail to conduct themselves in a responsible
manner.
Rather than stopping play, the referee may allow play to continue
if doing so will benefit the team against which an offence has been
committed. This is known as "playing an advantage". The referee may
"call back" play and penalise the original offence if the
anticipated advantage does not ensue within a short period,
typically taken to be four to five seconds. Even if an offence is
not penalised due to advantage being played, the offender may still
be sanctioned for misconduct at the next stoppage of play.
Governing bodies
The
recognised international governing body of football (and associated
games, such as futsal and beach soccer) is the Fédération Internationale de Football
Association (FIFA). The FIFA headquarters are located in
Zürich
.
Six regional confederations are associated with FIFA; these
are:
National associations oversee football within individual countries.
These are affiliated both with FIFA and with their respective
continental confederations.
Some of the football associations not recognised by FIFA are
affiliated to the
Nouvelle
Fédération-Board (NF-Board).
International competitions
A minute's silence before an
international match
The major international competition in football is the
World Cup, organised by FIFA. This
competition takes place over a four-year period. More than 190
national teams compete in qualifying tournaments within the scope
of continental confederations for a place in the finals. The finals
tournament, which is held every four years, involves 32 national
teams competing over a four-week period. The
2006 FIFA World Cup took place in
Germany; in 2010 it will be held in
South Africa.
There has been a
football tournament at every
Summer Olympic Games since
1900, except at the 1932 games in
Los Angeles. Before the inception of
the World Cup, the Olympics (especially during the 1920s) had the
same status as the World Cup. Originally, the event was for
amateurs only, however, since the
1984 Summer Olympics professional
players have been permitted, albeit with certain restrictions which
prevent countries from fielding their strongest sides. Currently,
the Olympic men's tournament is played at Under-23 level. In the
past the Olympics have allowed a restricted number of over-age
players per team; but that practice ceased in the 2008 Olympics.
The Olympic competition is not generally considered to carry the
same international significance and prestige as the World Cup. A
women's tournament was added in 1996; in contrast to the men's
event, full international sides without age restrictions play the
women’s Olympic tournament. It thus carries international prestige
considered comparable to that of the
FIFA Women's World Cup.
After the World Cup, the most important international football
competitions are the continental championships, which are organised
by each continental confederation and contested between national
teams. These are the
European Championship (UEFA),
the
Copa América (CONMEBOL),
African Cup of Nations (CAF),
the
Asian Cup (AFC), the
CONCACAF Gold Cup (CONCACAF) and the
OFC Nations Cup (OFC). The
FIFA Confederations Cup is contested
by the winners of all 6 continental championships, the current
FIFA World Cup champions and the
country which is hosting the Confederations Cup. This is generally
regarded as a warm up tournament for the upcoming FIFA World Cup
and does not carry the same prestige as the World Cup itself.The
most prestigious competitions in club football are the respective
continental championships, which are generally contested between
national champions, for example the
UEFA Champions League in Europe and
the
Copa Libertadores
de América in South America. The winners of each continental
competition contest the
FIFA Club
World Cup.
Domestic competitions
Two players trying to win the
ball
The governing bodies in each country operate
league systems in a
domestic season, normally comprising
several
division, in which the
teams gain points throughout the season depending on results. Teams
are placed into
table, placing
them in order according to points accrued. Most commonly, each team
plays every other team in its league at home and away in each
season, in a
round-robin
tournament. At the end of a season, the top team is declared
the champion. The top few teams may be
promoted to a higher division, and
one or more of the teams finishing at the bottom are
relegated to a lower division. The
teams finishing at the top of a country's league may be eligible
also to play in international club competitions in the following
season. The main exceptions to this system occur in some
Latin American leagues, which divide football
championships into two sections named
Apertura and Clausura, awarding a
champion for each.
The majority of countries supplement the league system with one or
more "cup" competitions. These are organised on a
knock-out basis, the winner of
each match proceeding to the next round; the loser takes no further
part in the competition.
Some countries' top divisions feature highly paid star players; in
smaller countries and lower divisions, players may be part-timers
with a second job, or amateurs. The five top European
leagues –
Serie A (Italy),
La Liga (Spain), the
Premier League (England), the
Bundesliga (Germany) and
Ligue 1 (France) – attract most of the world's
best players and each of the leagues has a total wage cost in
excess of £600 million.
Etymology
The rules of football were codified in England by the Football
Association in 1863, and the name
association football was
coined to distinguish the game from the
other
forms of football played at the time, specifically
rugby football. The term
soccer
originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as a slang
abbreviation of the word "association", often credited to former
England captain
Charles
Wreford-Brown.
Today the sport is generally known simply as
football in
countries where it is the most popular football code. In countries
where other codes are more popular, the sport is more commonly
referred to as
soccer, and indeed is referred to as such
in the official names of the governing bodies in the United States
and Canada.
FIFA, the sport's world governing body,
defines the sport as association football in its statutes, but the
term most commonly used by FIFA and the International Olympic
Committee
is football.
See also
References
- (webarchive)
- (webarchive)
- (webarchive)
- FIFA MEDIA Release (2008-03-08) Goal-line
technology put on ice
- The
Sunday Times Illustrated History Of Football Reed
International Books Limited 1996. p.11 ISBN 1-85613-341-9
- The number of competing teams has varied over the history of
the competition. The most recent changed was in 1998, from 24
to 32.
- (webarchive)
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