Association football

Association football

The attacking player (No. 10) attempts to kick the ball beyond the

opposing team's goalkeeper, between the goalposts, and beneath the

crossbar (not shown) to score a goal.

Highest governing body FIFA

• The Beautiful Game

Nicknames
• The World's Game[1][2]

First played Mid-19th century England[3][4]

Characteristics

Contact Limited

Team members 11 per side (including goalkeeper)

Mixed-sex No, separate competitions

Type Team sport, ball sport

Equipment Football (or soccer ball), shin pads

Venue Football pitch (also known as football

field, football ground, soccer field,
soccer pitch or "pitch")

Glossary Glossary of association football

Presence

Country or region Worldwide

 Olympic Men's since the 1900 Olympics and
women's since the 1996 Olympics

Paralympic 5-a-side since 2004 and 7-a-

side from 1984 to 2016

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer,[a] is a team

sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel
a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score
more goals than the opposite team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a
rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has
been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an
estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is
considered the world's most popular sport.
The game of association football is played in accordance with the Laws of the Game,
a set of rules that has been in effect since 1863 and maintained by the IFAB since
1886. The game is played with a football that is 68–70 cm (27–28 in) in
circumference. The two teams compete to get the ball into the other team's goal
(between the posts and under the bar), thereby scoring a goal. When the ball is in
play, the players mainly use their feet, but may use any other part of their body,
except for their hands or arms, to control, strike, or pass the ball. Only
the goalkeepers may use their hands and arms, and only then within the penalty
area. The team that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner.
Depending on the format of the competition, an equal number of goals scored may
result in a draw being declared, or the game goes into extra time or a penalty
shootout.[5]
Internationally, association football is governed by FIFA. Under FIFA, there are six
continental confederations: AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC and UEFA.
National associations (e.g. The FA or JFA) are responsible for managing the game in
their own countries both professionally and at an amateur level, and coordinating
competitions in accordance with the Laws of the Game. The most senior and
prestigious international competitions are the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA
Women's World Cup. The men's World Cup is the most-viewed sporting event in the
world, surpassing the Olympic Games.[6] The two most prestigious competitions in
European club football are the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Women's
Champions League, which attract an extensive television audience throughout the
world. The final of the men's tournament has been, in recent years, the most-
watched annual sporting event in the world.[7]
Women's association football has historically seen opposition, with national
associations severely curbing its development and several outlawing it completely.
Restrictions started to be reduced in the 1970s and the first official women's World
Cup[b] was the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup in China with only 12 teams from the
respective six confederations. By the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France, this
had increased to 24 national teams, and a record-breaking 1.12 billion viewers
watched the competition.[8]

Name
Main article: Names for association football
Association football is one of a family of football codes that emerged from
various ball games played worldwide since antiquity. Within the English-speaking
world, the sport is now usually called "football" in Great Britain and most of Ulster in
the north of Ireland, whereas people usually call it "soccer" in regions and countries
where other codes of football are prevalent, such as Australia,[9] Canada, South
Africa, most of Ireland (excluding Ulster),[10] and the United States; in Japan, the
game is also primarily called sakkā (サッカー), derived from "soccer". A notable
exception is New Zealand, where in the first two decades of the 21st century, under
the influence of international television, "football" has been gaining prevalence,
despite the dominance of other codes of football, namely rugby union and rugby
league.[11]
The term soccer comes from Oxford "-er" slang, which was prevalent at
the University of Oxford in England from about 1875, and is thought to have been
borrowed from the slang of Rugby School. Initially spelled assoccer, it was later
reduced to the modern spelling.[12] This form of slang also gave rise to rugger for
rugby football, fiver and tenner for five pound and ten pound notes, and the now-
archaic footer that was also a name for association football.[13] The
word soccer arrived at its final form in 1895 and was first recorded in 1889 in the
earlier form of socca.[14]