Football, A Sport For All

Football

Football is a team sport, it is one of the most popular sports in many parts of the world. In this sport, two teams of 11 players each play against each other. The aim of the game is to score more goals than the opponents by kicking a football in the opponents goal. It is played on a rectangular pitch with a goal at each end; the surface can vary from grass to Astroturf, however in professional football the pitch is usually made of grass. Each match lasts 90 minutes made up by two halves of 45mins with a 15 minute break at half-time. The rules of the game are very old (1863) and a referee has the job to make players follow those rules, his job is also to time the game. The most important rules of the game are that football is played with one single round ball and the outfield players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hand whilst it is in play; the only time where they’re allowed to use their hands is when the ball goes out of play and the players use a throw-in with their hands to restart play. The only player allowed to use his hands during play is the goalkeeper who can use his hands to stop the ball only in his delimited area and only when the ball is shot by an opponent player. Other rules are that if a player is fouled inside the goalkeeping area of the other team, a penalty shot is assigned to the attacking side and one player from the team will shoot the ball towards the goal from the penalty spot inside the opponents team area. Whenever there is a foul not inside the goalkeeping area, a simple free-kick is given from the spot the foul was made.

In professional football, there are many competitions; each nation has its own championship for clubs, then there are international competitions both for clubs and national teams. In Europe the biggest and most important competition is the champions league during which the best 32 European teams compete in a very hard series