Football, or soccer, remains the world’s most widely played team sport, and its rules have stayed largely recognisable for well over a century even as the details keep getting tweaked. Two teams of eleven try to put the ball into each other’s goal using any part of the body except the hands and arms, across ninety minutes split into two halves. What has changed in recent years is less the basic idea and more how the game is officiated, with video assistance now a fixture at the top level.
Objective
Each team tries to score more goals than the opponent by getting the ball fully over the goal line, between the posts and under the crossbar. Outfield players can use their feet, chest, head or any part of the body other than the hand and arm; only the goalkeeper, within their own penalty area, is allowed to handle the ball.
Rules and regulations
- A match lasts 90 minutes, played in two 45-minute halves, with the referee adding on time lost to substitutions, injuries and other stoppages.
- The offside law, set by football’s rule-making body, the International Football Association Board, says an attacking player is offside if any part of their head, body or feet is nearer the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last defender when the ball is played to them, though a player level with that defender is not offside.
- Handball is judged mainly on whether the contact looked deliberate, or whether a player made their body unnaturally bigger with an outstretched arm, rather than on whether the ball simply struck a hand.
- Video Assistant Referee reviews are used in top professional and international competitions to check clear and obvious errors around goals, penalties, red cards and mistaken identity, and semi-automated offside technology now helps officials make faster, more precise offside calls in major tournaments.
- VAR does not feature at grassroots or most domestic amateur level, where the on-field referee’s decision stays final.
Equipment and playing area
- Pitches vary in size within limits set by FIFA, typically around 105 metres by 68 metres for international matches, with a goal 7.32 metres wide and 2.44 metres high at each end.
- Players wear studded boots suited to the surface, shin guards are compulsory, and the ball must meet size and weight standards checked before major matches.
- FIFA governs the sport worldwide, working alongside continental confederations and national associations, while the International Football Association Board decides on any change to the Laws of the Game itself.
- In India, the All India Football Federation runs the domestic game, including the national team and the top-tier Indian Super League.
Scoring
- A goal is worth one point on the scoreboard, and the side with more goals when the match ends wins.
- If scores are level after 90 minutes, league matches are usually recorded as a draw, while knockout matches typically move to extra time and then a penalty shoot-out if neither side has found a winner.
