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The striker (in red) has run past the defender (in white) and is about to take a shot at the goal, while the goalkeeper positions
himself to stop the ball
Football or soccer is the most widely played and watched team sport in the world. The game is occasionally known by its official name of association football to
differentiate it from other codes of football.
Football is a ball game played between two teams of eleven players, each attempting to win by scoring more goals than their opponent. A goal results when the ball passes over the goal
line between the goalposts and under the crossbar. It is played predominantly with the feet, but players may use any part of
their body except their hands and arms to propel the ball. The goalkeeper is the only member of the team allowed to handle the
ball in the field of play.
Football is played at a professional level all over the world and millions of people regularly go to a football stadium to
follow their home team, whilst millions more avidly 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, the Sport's
governing body, and published in the spring of 2001, over 240 million people regularly play football in more than 200 countries
in every part of the world. Its simple rules and minimal equipment requirements have no doubt aided its spread and growth in
popularity. In many parts of the world, particularly in Europe, South America and increasingly in Africa, football evokes great passions and plays an important role in the life of individual fans, local
communities, and even nations.
The name of the game
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 versions of
football played at the time. The word soccer is a colloquial abbreviation of association (from assoc.)
and first appeared in the 1880s. The word is sometimes credited to Charles Wreford Brown, an Oxford University student said to have been fond of shortened forms such as brekkers for
breakfast and rugger for rugby football. In the late 19th century the word
soccer tended to be used only at public schools; most people
knew the game simply as football. Today the term association football is rarely used, although some clubs still
include Association Football Club (AFC) in their name. The game is sometimes known colloquially as
footie; the term footer was also once used but is now obsolete.
Football was exported by expatriate Britons to much of the rest of the world
and many of these nations adopted this common English term for the
sport into their own language. This was usually done in one of two ways: either by directly importing the word itself, or by
translating its constituent parts, foot and ball. Most Romance languages use the word football, albeit with a different pronunciation and occasionally
a different spelling (Spanish: fútbol, Portuguese: futebol). In French, le football is often shortened to le foot, and in Quebec the word is le soccer. By way of contrast, Germanic languages usually translate the term (for example, German: Fußball, Swedish:
fotboll, Danish: fodbold, Dutch: voetbal). Finnish (jalkapallo) and Arabic
(kurat al qadam) also use translated terms.
In Italy, football is called calcio, from calciare meaning to
kick. This is due to the game's resemblance to Calcio Fiorentino, a 17th century ceremonial
Florentine court ritual, that has now
been revived under the name il calcio storico (historical kick or kickball in costume).
Aside from the name of the game itself, other foreign words based on English football terms include versions in many languages
of the word goal (often gol in Romance languages) and schútte (Basel) or tschuutte (Zurich), derived from the English
shoot, meaning 'to play football' in German-speaking Switzerland.
Football is more commonly known as soccer in certain English-speaking nations where the word football refers
to a rival code of football developed within that nation, specifically Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland and the United States and also in nations where Rugby
football is more popular such as New Zealand and South Africa. In these countries football was often included in the names
of the earliest leagues and governing bodies of the sport, but as that word became increasingly associated with the domestic form
of the game so soccer became more widely used. For example, the governing body of the game in the US is the United States Soccer Federation. This body
was originally called the US Football Association, and was formed in 1913 by the
merger of the American Football Association and the American Amateur Football Association. The word
soccer was added to the name in 1945, making it the US Soccer Football
Association, and it did not drop the word football until 1974, when it
assumed its current name.
Outside these countries the word soccer has not been commonly used and football remains by far the most
common name to describe the sport, being the name officially used by both FIFA, the sport's world governing body, and the
International Olympic Committee.
However, the use of soccer is on the rise, perhaps due to the global influence of American culture on the English language.
The laws of football
History and development
The rules of the football are known as the Laws of the Game and
are based on efforts made in the mid-19th century to standardise the rules
of the widely varying games of football played at the public
schools of England. The first set of rules resembling the modern game were produced at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1848, at a meeting
attended by representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury, but
they were far from universally adopted. A number of rival and/or revised sets of rules were subsequently proposed, most notably
by the Sheffield football club (formed by former pupils from Harrow) in
1857 and the rules of JC Thring in 1862. These
efforts culminated in the formation of The Football
Association in 1863 which first met on the evening of 26 October 1863. Between October and December the Freemason's Tavern in Great Queen Street, London, was the setting for a
series of six meetings which eventually produced the first comprehensive set of rules. At the final meeting, the representative
from Blackheath
withdrew his club from The FA over a rule outlawing hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins). The Blackheath club later went on
to form the Rugby Football Union.
Today the laws of the game are determined by the International Football Association Board (IFAB). The Board was formed in 1882 after a meeting in Manchester of The Football Association, the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales, and the Irish Football Association. The Fédération
Internationale de Football Association FIFA, the international football body, was formed in
Paris in 1904 and declared that they would adhere
to the rules laid down by the IFAB. The growing popularity of the international game led to the admittance of FIFA
representatives to the IFAB in 1913. Today the board is made up of four representatives
from FIFA and one representative from each of the four British associations.
The Official Laws of the Game
The official Laws of the Game are:
- Law 1: The Field of Play
- Law 2: The Ball
- Law 3: The Number of Players
- Law 4: The Players' Equipment
- Law 5: The Referee
- Law 6: The Assistant Referees
- Law 7: The Duration of the Match
- Law 8: The Start and Restart of Play
- Law 9: The Ball In and Out of Play
- Law 10: The Method of Scoring
- Law 11: Offside
- Law 12: Fouls and Misconduct
- Law 13: Free Kicks
- Law 14: The Penalty Kick
- Law 15: The Throw-In
- Law 16: The Goal Kick
- Law 17: The Corner Kick
In addition to the seventeen Laws, numerous IFAB decisions and other directives contribute to the regulation of football. The
laws of the game can be found on the FIFA
website.
Object of the game
A goalkeeper dives to stop the ball from entering his goal.
Two teams of eleven players each contend to get a spherical ball into the other team's goal (thereby scoring a goal). The side which does this the most frequently is
the winner. The primary rule for this objective is that players, other than the goalkeepers, may not handle the ball with their
hands or arms while on the field during play.
Officials
The game is presided over 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 regarding facts connected with play are final. The Referee is assisted by two assistant referees (formerly called
linesmen). In many games there is also a fourth official, who assists the referee and may replace another
official should the need arise.
Teams
Each team has a goalkeeper who is allowed to handle the ball with his arms and shoulders when he is standing within the outer
marked area around the home goal, which is called the penalty area (also known as the "box" or "18 yard box"). The penalty area extends 18 yards (16.46
metres) each side of the goal, and 18 yards in front of it.
The ten outfield players on either side are not permitted to touch the ball with their arms or shoulders whilst the ball is in
play, however may play it with any other part of their body. The sole exception to this is when the ball is kicked out of play
over the touchlines and a throw in occurs to return the ball into play.
A number (variable by league and nation), of players may be replaced by substitutes during the course of the game.
The usual reasons for a player's replacement include injury, tiredness, ineffectiveness, a tactical switch, or to waste a little
time at the end of a finely poised game.
Playing field
According to IFAB regulations the length of the football field (or "pitch") for international matches should be in the range
100-110 metres and the width should be in the
range 64-75 metres. (For other matches the constraints are looser: 90-120 metres length
by 45-90 metres width.) The dimensions are sometimes changed to accommodate younger players, but the pitch should always be
longer than it is wide. The area is under a hectare.
The pitch is divided at the centre: this is the halfway line. Exactly halfway across the halfway line is the
centre spot (kick offs at the beginning of each half and after a goal is scored are taken from this spot). A circle is
drawn around the centre spot, the centre circle which has a radius of 10 yards (9.144 m) from the centre spot.
At either end of the pitch is a goal. This is a letterbox-shaped receptacle with a net behind it whose dimensions are: 8 feet
(2.44 m) in height and 24 feet (7.32 m) in width. Two boxes are marked out on the pitch in front of the goal. The smaller box,
called the "goal area," is laid out to surround the goal at an equal distance of 6 yards (5.5 m). "Goal Kicks" and any free kick
to the defending team may be taken from anywhere in this area; indirect free kicks to the attacking team must be taken from the
point on this line parallel to the goal line nearest where an infraction occurred. The outer box is known as the penalty
area or the 18 yard box, and is set 18 yards (16.5 m) to each side of the goal, and 18 yards in front of it. A
small semicircle (called the restraining arc) is also drawn at the edge of the penalty area, the D, 10 yards (9.5m) from
the penalty mark. This is an exclusion zone for all players other than the one taking the kick in the event of a penalty being awarded.
The penalty spot (or penalty mark) is immediately in the middle of and 12 yards (11 m) in front of the goal.
In each corner of the pitch a small quarter circle with a 1 yard radius is drawn where corner kicks are taken
from.
All lines drawn on the pitch are a part of the area which they define. A ball on the touchline is still on the field of play,
a ball on the line of the goal area is in the goal area, and a foul committed over the 18-yard line is in the penalty area. A
ball must wholly cross the touchline to be out of play, and a ball must wholly cross the goal line (between the goal posts)
before a goal is scored; if any part of the ball is still over the line, the ball is still in play.
Duration
Standard durations
A standard adult football match consists of two periods (known as halves) of 45 minutes each. There is usually a 15-minute
break between halves, known as half-time. The end of the match is known as full-time.
Extra time and shootouts
Most games simply end after these two halves, either with one team winning or with a draw (a tied game). However, some games,
particularly knockout competition matches, provide for extra time in the event
of a tied result at the end the two halves of normal time: two further periods of 15 minutes are played. Until recently, FIFA
have experimented with various forms of 'sudden death' extra time (see below for details); however, these experiments have now
been abandoned.
If the score is still tied after extra time, some competitions allow the use of kicks from the penalty mark
(colloquially known as penalty shoot-outs) to determine a winner. Other competitions may require the game to be replayed.
Note that goals scored during extra time periods count towards the final score of the game, though kicks from the penalty mark
are only used to decide the team that progresses to the next part of the tournament (goals scored do not make up part of the
final).
Referee as official timekeeper
The referee is the official timekeeper for the match, and it is part of his duties to make allowance for time lost through
substitutions, injured players requiring attention, cautions and dismissals, sundry time wasting, etc (although normally no
allowance is made for small amounts of time lost during most short breaks in play, such as for throw-ins or free kicks, unless
the referee anticipates a large amount of time will be lost before the restart). When making such an allowance for time lost, the
referee is often said to be "adding time on". The amount of time is at the sole discretion of the referee, and the referee alone
signals when the match has been completed; there are no other timekeepers, although assistant referees carry a watch and may
provide a second opinion if required to by the referee. In matches where a fourth official is appointed, towards the end of the
half the referee will signal how many minutes remain to be played, and the fourth official then signals this to players and
spectators by holding up a board showing this number. Note that there is often semantic debate as to whether the referee is
"adding on" time to the end of a half, or rather treating time during stoppages as though it never existed as part of the match
time; this distinction has little bearing on the practical conduct of a game, however it may be noted that the pre-1997 wording of the laws stated that the referee "shall ... allow the full or agreed time
adding thereto all time lost through injury or accident" (Law V), and later FIFA guidelines regarding the annotation of
goal scoring times suggested that time is indeed "added-on" to the end of the agreed half period.
Golden and silver goal experiments
In the late 1990s, the IFAB experimented with ways of making matches more likely to
end without requiring kicks from the penalty mark, as they are generally seen as an undesirable and unfair way to end a match.
The first was the Golden Goal: this was equivalent to North American ice hockey or American professional football overtime
procedures where the first goal or points scored in extra time wins the match. However, the Golden Goal was soon criticised
because it tended to produce boring extra time periods where both sides sat back, too scared of a sudden counter-attack to try
any serious attacking, and waited for penalties. In response, they created the Silver Goal procedure; basically, if one side was
leading at half time in extra time, then the match was terminated there. If the scores were still level, the second half of extra
time was played. This was also largely seen as a failure, and at the 2004 meeting of the
IFAB, they decided to scrap both the Golden Goal and the Silver Goal, and in August 2004
they will be removed from the laws, and standard fifteen minutes each way will be the only sanctioned form of extra time.
Major international events
The major international competition in football is the World
Cup organised by FIFA. The World Cup competition takes place over a two year period.
Over 190 national teams compete in regional qualifying tournaments for a place in the finals. The final tournament, which is held
every four years, now involves 32 national teams (increased from 24 in 1998) competing over
a 4 week period.
There has been a football
tournament at the Summer Olympic Games since 1900 (except for the 1932 games in Los Angeles). Originally this was for amateurs only, but since the 1984 Summer Olympics professionals have been admitted as well,
within certain criteria, meaning that countries are not able to field their strongest sides. Consequently the competition does
carry the same international significance and prestige as the World Cup. Before 1984 the Olympic competition was dominated by
eastern bloc countries where the distinction between amateur and
professional players was vague.
The major national competitions of the continents are:
The major club event in Europe is the Champions League, while the major club event in South
America is the Copa Libertadores.
Violence
The level of passion with which football teams are supported has from time to time caused problems, as groups of fanatics have
participated in disturbances and sometimes tragedies (see hooligans, Heysel Stadium disaster and Football War). As of 2004 this aspect of the game seems to have passed its peak though by no means
disappeared completely. Specialist police units and information sharing between regional and international police forces has made
it much harder for the hooligans to organize their displays of hatred. Violence has also affected players, with the Colombian
international player Andreas Escobar being murdered shortly after returning home from the 1994 World Cup. This was reputedly for
scoring the own goal which eliminated Colombia from the competition [1] .
Accidents and disasters in football
There have been many accidents and disasters in the history of football. Some of these such as the Hillsborough disaster and Ibrox disaster were due to problems with crowd control. The Bradford City Disaster occured due to poor fire safety in the stadium. Lessons learned from these
disasters have led to better and safer football stadia.
There have also been deaths on the pitch. On September 5th 1931, the Celtic
F.C. goalkeeper John Thomson suffered a skull fracture when he collided with the Rangers F.C. player Sam English during an Old Firm match. He was fatally injured and died later that day
[2] . The Cameroon international player Marc Vivien Foe
also died on the pitch. He collapsed during a match of the Confederations Cup against Colombia in 2003. His death was attributed
to heart problems.
Famous plays
The game has brought many memorable moments, including:
Football around the world
See also List
of association football competitions
See also
External links
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