Football (soccer)

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Association football is a sport played in teams. In Great Britain and Ireland it is usually called football. In most other English-speaking countries it is usually called soccer.

In each team there are 11 players. 10 of them play on the field and one is the goalkeeper. The game is played by kicking a ball into the opponent's goal. A match takes 90 minutes with a break of 15 minutes in the middle.

1 Who plays football
2 Competitions
3 Rules
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Who plays football

Football is the world's most popular sport. It is played in more countries than any other game and a lot of people enjoy playing the game. In fact, FIFA (the Federation Internationale de Football Association) has more members than the United Nations. It is played by both males and females, but more commonly by males.

[edit] Competitions

The FIFA World Cup takes place every four years between national teams, and is the world's most popular sporting event, even more popular than the Olympic Games^[1].

[edit] Rules

Players may not use their hands or arms (a handball), except the goalkeepers, who may use them within their own penalty area (penalty areas are in front of both goals).

Players may not trip or push each other (a foul).

Players may not hold each other or stop other players from getting to the ball (obstruction).

Players who commit bad fouls get shown a yellow card. Players who commit really bad fouls, or get shown two yellow cards in the same game, get shown a red card. Players who get shown a red card get sent off the field and cannot finish playing the game.

If a player puts the ball out of play at the side of the field, the other team gets to throw the ball back into play (a throw in).

If a player puts the ball out of play at their end of the field, the other team kicks the ball back into play from the corner (a corner kick);

If a player puts the ball out of play at the other end of the field, the other team kicks the ball back into play from directly in front of the goal (a goal kick);

The offside rule stops a player from kicking the ball to a player on the same team who does not have at least two players from the other team between them and the goal line (the goalkeeper can count as one of the opposing players).

When a player scores they are not allowed to jump into the crowd. If they do they will get a yellow card. The same applies to lifting their shirt in celebration.