Association football

For the American sport, see American football. For other sports known as football, see Football

Association football

Football pictogram
Highest governing body	FIFA
Nicknames	The Beautiful Game 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 is a sport played between two teams. In the United States, Canada and Australia, it is called soccer. In most other English-speaking countries it is called football. Association football is the most popular sport in the world.^[5]

Games like football have been played around the world since ancient times. The game came from England, where the Football Association wrote a standard set of rules for the game in 1863.

The game originated in China, for their army. The players had a very heavy ball and goals high. England took the idea of the Chinese game and changed the rules a bit and now it is the modern game we know today.

Each team has 11 players on the field. One of these players is the goalkeeper, the only player who is okay to touch the ball with their hands. The other ten are known as "outfield players". The players try to kick the ball into their opponents' goal. The team that scores the most goals wins. A match has 90 minutes of play, with a break of 15 minutes during the match. The break in the middle is called half-time. Added time may be added after half time or after 90 minutes to make up for time lost during the game because of fouls, free kicks, corner kicks, injuries, bookings, substitutions or any other time the game is stopped. A match can end in a tie, except in some competition games where one team must win. In that case, extra-time with two halves of 15 minutes each may be played, and if there is still a tie, a penalty shootout decides the winner. Sometimes extra-time is skipped and the game goes right into the penalty shootout.

1. ↑ "In a globalised world, the football World Cup is a force for good". The Conversation. 10 July 2014. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
2. ↑ "MLS as a Sports Product—The Prominence of the World's Game in the U.S. - Working Paper - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School". www.hbs.edu. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
3. ↑ "History of Football – Britain, the home of Football". FIFA. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013.
4. ↑ "History of Football – The Origins". FIFA. Archived from the original on 28 October 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
5. ↑ "The Most Popular Sports in the World". WorldAtlas. 16 October 2020.