⚽Rules Football

Association football (also called soccer) is a team sport played between two sides of eleven players on a rectangular field. Players try to send the ball into the opponents' goal, mainly using the feet, head or torso, without using the hands (except the goalkeeper inside their own area). It is the most popular sport in the world.

Score more goals than the opponent by sending the whole ball into the opposing goal, while preventing the other team from doing the same.

• •Two teams of 11 players, including one goalkeeper per team.
• •Only the goalkeeper may handle the ball, and only inside their own penalty area.
• •A goal counts when the whole ball crosses the goal line between the posts and under the crossbar.
• •When the ball goes out over the sidelines, play restarts with a throw-in (two-handed).
• •A player is offside if they are nearer to the opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent when the ball is played to them (subject to the law's conditions).
• •Dangerous contact, handball and unsporting behaviour are penalised by the referee.

Each goal is worth 1 point. A goal is awarded when the whole ball crosses the goal line between the posts and under the crossbar, provided no offence has been committed by the scoring team. The team with the most goals at the end of the match wins.

A standard match lasts 90 minutes, split into two halves of 45 minutes separated by a half-time interval. The referee adds stoppage time to compensate for delays. In a knockout match level after regulation, extra time (2 x 15 min) and then a penalty shoot-out may decide the winner, depending on the competition rules.

The team that has scored the most goals at the end of regulation time wins; if level, the match is a draw, unless the competition uses extra time and/or a penalty shoot-out to determine a winner.