Portal:Association football

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Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players each, who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposing team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing team. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is the world's most popular sport.

The game of association football is played in accordance with the Laws of the Game, a set of rules that has been in effect since 1863 and maintained by the IFAB since 1886. The game is played with a football that is 68–70 cm (27–28 in) in circumference. The two teams compete to score goals by getting the ball into the other team's goal (between the posts, under the bar, and fully across the goal line). When the ball is in play, the players mainly use their feet, but may also use any other part of their body, such as their head, chest, and thighs, except for their hands or arms, to control, strike, or pass the ball. Only the goalkeepers may use their hands and arms, and that only within the penalty area. The team that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner. There are situations where a goal can be disallowed, such as an offside call or a foul in the build-up to the goal. Depending on the format of the competition, an equal number of goals scored may result in a draw being declared with 1 point awarded to each team, or the game goes into extra time or a penalty shoot-out.

Internationally, association football is governed by FIFA. Under FIFA, there are six continental confederations: AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC, and UEFA. Of these confederations, CONMEBOL is the oldest one, being founded in 1916. National associations (e.g. The FA in England) are responsible for managing the game in their own countries both professionally and at an amateur level, and coordinating competitions in accordance with the Laws of the Game. (Full article...)

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Norwich City players celebrate promotion to the FA Premiership at the end of the 2003/04

Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. Norwich last appeared in the FA Premier League in 2004–05, having first been promoted to the top flight in 1972. The club has also won the League Cup twice, in 1962 and 1985.

Founded in 1902, Norwich have played their home games at Carrow Road since 1935, a ground that was constructed in just 82 days. Its record attendance of 43,984 was achieved in 1963 for an FA Cup game against Leicester City. Following new legislation and redevelopment into an all-seated stadium, its current capacity is 26,034.

The club have a long-standing rivalry with East Anglian neighbours Ipswich Town, with whom they contest the East Anglian Derby. Other teams in the area also compete with Norwich for the informal Pride of Anglia award. (Full article...)

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Footballer Shaun Goater at a book signing on 26 September 2006

Shaun Goater MBE (born 25 February 1970 in Hamilton, Bermuda) is a footballer who played as a striker for a number of English clubs in the 1990s and 2000s.

Goater's first professional club was Manchester United, but he did not reach the first team, making his League debut in 1989 after moving to Rotherham. He played for Rotherham for seven years before moving to Bristol City in 1996. Two years later he moved to Manchester City for a fee of £400,000.

He is most well known for his time at Manchester City, where he scored over 100 goals between 1998 and 2003, finishing as the club's top scorer for four consecutive seasons. After leaving City, Goater had spells with Reading, Coventry and Southend United, before retiring in May 2006.

A former member of the Bermudian national team, Goater returned to Bermuda on retirement, receiving an official welcome from Prime Minister Alex Scott on his arrival. Since 2003, he has organised the annual Shaun Goater Grass-roots Soccer Festival, a football coaching event for children on the islands. (Full article...)

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Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only established in 1961 as the Australian Soccer Federation. It was later reconstituted in 2003 as the Australian Soccer Association before adopting the name of Football Federation Australia in 2005. In contemporary identification, a corporate decision was undertaken to institute that name to deliver a "more united football" in a deliberation from the current CEO, James Johnson. The name was changed to Football Australia in December 2020.

Football Australia oversees the men's, women's, youth, Paralympic, beach and futsal national teams in Australia, the national coaching programs and the state governing bodies for the sport. It sanctions professional, semi-professional and amateur soccer in Australia. Football Australia made the decision to leave the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), for which it was a founding member, and become a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 2006 and ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) in 2013. (Full article...)

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... that Ryan Roberts, a defensive end for Notre Dame, was a soccer player in high school?
... that Ecuadorian footballer Hernán Galíndez won a bicycle for beating a team featuring Lionel Messi when they were children?
... that goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse, who has lived in England, Africa and the US, has been chosen to play soccer for the Republic of Ireland?
... that after his soccer career, Steve Palacios enlisted in the United States Army and played for the United States Armed Forces soccer team?
... that Welsh footballer Jon Morgan went on to become a college principal after retiring?
... that Carlton Town F.C., now competing at the eighth tier of the English football pyramid, was once denied promotion by a hat-trick scored by future England international Jamie Vardy?

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football in Japan

Credit: Flickr user Jack French

A futsal pitch in use on the top of a tower block in Tokyo. The sport of football in Japan is organized professionally by the J.League and the Japan Football Association. Association football and its variants are some of the most popular sports in the country.

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The person that said winning isn't everything, never won anything.

— Mia Hamm

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The following are images from various association football-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1United States Abby Wambach plays off a corner kick against Canada.
Image 2Japanese high-school girls playing football in their traditional hakama with one team wearing sashes (c. 1920) (from Women's association football)
Image 3Sam Kerr with Australia during the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup quarterfinal against Japan in Edmonton, 2015 (from Women's association football)
Image 4FC de Rakt DA1 (2008/2009) (from Women's association football)
Image 5Iran vs Turkey in 2010 Youth Olympics (from Women's association football)
Image 6Harrow School team of 1867. (from History of association football)
Image 7Portland Thorns traveling supporters at Seattle's Memorial Stadium. (from Women's association football)
Image 8A Welsh women's football team pose for a photograph in 1959 (from Women's association football)
Image 9Drawing of the first international game by artist William Ralston (from History of association football)
Image 10Marta of Brazil is the all-time leading scorer of the senior FIFA World Cups. (from Women's association football)
Image 11The official record attendance for a women's football match was set at Camp Nou on 22 April 2022, with 91,648 people watching Barcelona defeat Wolfsburg 5–1 (pictured). (from Women's association football)
Image 12Representation of a football match from the book Athletics and football, 1894 (from History of association football)
Image 13The Royal Engineers team who reached the first FA Cup final in 1872 (from History of association football)
Image 14Megan Rapinoe speaks on equal pay in March 2021. (from Women's association football)
Image 15Arsenal in 2007 of the Women's FA Cup. (from Women's association football)
Image 16Florida state vs North Carolina soccer 2005. (from Women's association football)
Image 17An early draft of the original hand-written 'Laws of the Game' drawn up on behalf of The Football Association by Ebenezer Cobb Morley in 1863 on display at the National Football Museum, Manchester. (from Laws of the Game (association football))
Image 18Olympique Lyonnais vs Paris Saint-Germain. (from Women's association football)
Image 19When first introduced in 1891, the penalty was awarded for offences within 12 yards of the goal-line. (from Laws of the Game (association football))
Image 20Mia Hamm (left) battles with German defender Kerstin Stegemann (from Women's association football)
Image 21"North" team of the British Ladies' Football Club, 1895 (from Women's association football)
Image 22The Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies (from Women's association football)
Image 23From 1866 to 1883, the laws provided for a tape between the goalposts (from Laws of the Game (association football))
Image 24Sheffield F.C. (here pictured in 1876) is the oldest association club still active, having been founded in 1857 (from History of association football)
Image 25Old Etonians v Blackburn Rovers match. Illustration by S.T. Dadd, 1882 (from History of association football)
Image 26Iran women's national football team maintained a higher rank internationally. (from Women's association football)
Image 27Players fighting for the ball during the match between Germany and Norway in UEFA Women's Euro 2009 in Tampere, Finland. (from Women's association football)
Image 28Cricket and Foot-Ball, one of the earliest books about association football, published by Beadle & Co. in New York in 1866. It contained the rules and laws of the game (from History of association football)
Image 29Striker Cristiana Girelli and coach Rita Guarino of Juventus in 2019. Juventus is one of the most storied and successful football clubs in Italy. (from Women's association football)

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The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the 7th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place between August 1960 and December 1961, with 56 teams entering from six confederations, and fourteen qualifying for the finals tournament alongside Chile, the hosts, and Brazil, the defending champions.

Brazil successfully defended their World Cup title, defeating Czechoslovakia 3–1 in the final in the Chilean capital Santiago. They became the second team, after Italy in 1934 and 1938, to win the World Cup twice consecutively; no team has since achieved the feat. Host nation Chile finished third, defeating Yugoslavia 1–0 in the third-place play-off. (Full article...)

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More did you know - load new batch

... that Bradford City scored three goals in 13 minutes to secure promotion in the 2013 Football League Two play-off Final? (21 February 2021)
... that the 2008 FA Cup Final between Cardiff City and Portsmouth holds the record for the highest attendance for a football match at the new Wembley Stadium, with 89,874? (16 January 2021)
... that a team including bricklayers, assistant bank managers and insurance clerks defeated Coventry City in the third round of the FA Cup in 1989? (5 April 2021)
... that Phil Chisnall moved from Manchester United to Liverpool in April 1964, becoming the last player to be transferred directly between the two clubs? (26 March 2021)
... that the year after going into administration, Huddersfield Town gained promotion to the Second Division by winning the 2004 Football League Third Division play-off Final? (27 April 2021)
... that, such was his popularity with the club's supporters, when footballer Hughie Ferguson was sold by Motherwell F.C., the local steel works closed to allow workers to wave him off? (31 March 2021)