What is soccer?

We explain what football is and what are the main rules of this game. In addition, how the playing field and futsal should be.

1. What is soccer?

Soccer is first defined as a game that includes two opponents and a referee with the ability to impose impartial justice . Each opponent is made up of a team of 11 players on the playing field each, with the option of including substitute players during the football match.

The goal is to roll a spherical ball in order to score a point , whose score is valid when crossing the boundary line of the opposite arc. Each point achieved is known as a goal  , therefore the team that scores the most goals in the course of 90 minutes – net time of a match – will be the winner.

Each team must include in their squad a goalkeeper or goalkeeper, the only player capable of touching the ball with their hands and with the task of preventing the ball from crossing its own goal; a group of defenders; a group of flyers and finally a group of strikers. The tactics of each team may vary in preference of the technical director in charge of the football team.

2. Main rules of football

• Take out side.  Once the ball has crossed a lateral line, the ball must be taken by hand to put it back into play.
• Goal kick.  Once the ball has crossed the front line, having been touched for the last time by a team on the opponent’s playing field, the opposing goalkeeper must put the ball into play from his goal.
• Corner kick.  Once the ball has crossed the front line and has been touched for the last time by a team in its own field, the opponent will be granted to resume the game with a throw-in of the ball from the corresponding vertex.
• Yellow card.  It will be up to the referee to sanction a player with a yellow card when a player commits an offense.
• Red card.  A player will see the red card upon receiving two yellow cards and must leave the field immediately. It can also be sanctioned with a direct red card.

3. The playing field

The playing field to practice professional football must meet certain conditions established by the sports authority known as FIFA (International Federation of Football Association). These conditions are:

• It will have to include natural or artificial grass of rectangular shape.
• Long established measures.  minimum 90 meters, maximum 120 meters.
• Established measures of width.  minimum 45 meters, maximum 90 meters.
• The arches must measure up to 2.44 meters, with 7.32 meters of separation between one side stick and the other.

4. Futsal (or football 5)

Futsal consists of two teams consisting of 5 players each . The duration of the match is 40 minutes, separated into two parts of 20 minutes. Its pitch varies between 40 meters long and 20 meters wide and is composed of solid material. As for rules, it is made up of the same as traditional football, except for the exclusion of offside and the sides made with the foot.