Football - The Game of Millions

September 17, 2007 on 11:09 pm | In Entertainment

Football is played in accordance with a set of rules known as the Laws of the Game. The game is played using a single round ball. Two teams of eleven players each compete to get the ball into the other team’s goal, thereby scoring a goal. The team that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner; if both teams have scored an equal number of goals then the game is a draw.

At a professional level, most football matches produce only a few goals. For example, the 2005?06 season of the English Premier League produced an average of 2.48 goals per match. The Laws of the Game do not specify any player positions other than goalkeeper, but a number of specialized roles have evolved. Broadly, these include three main categories: strikers, or forwards, whose main task is to score goals; defenders, who specialize in preventing their opponents from scoring; and midfielders, who dispossess the opposition and keep possession of the ball in order to pass it to the forwards. Players in these positions are referred to as outfield players, in order to discern them from the single goalkeeper. These positions are further subdivided according to the area of the field in which the player spends most time. For example, there are central defenders, and left and right midfielders. The ten outfield players may be arranged in any combination. The number of players in each position determines the style of the team’s play; more forwards and fewer defenders creates a more aggressive and offensive-minded game, while the reverse creates a slower, more defensive style of play. While players typically spend most of the game in a specific position, there are few restrictions on player movement, and players can switch positions at any time. The layout of a team’s players is known as a formation. Defining the team’s formation and tactics is usually the prerogative of the team’s manager.

Soccer differs from other team sports in that there is only one referee, who makes all decisions related to rules. In most countries, the referee is also the sole timekeeper and has discretion to add time to the end of the game if he or she believes one team has intentionally wasted time. Or the referee may add time at the end of the game because of player injuries or other delays.

The referee can eject players from a match for violent or unbecoming conduct. The referee may show a player who commits an especially dangerous foul a yellow card, which is an official caution. A player who is shown the yellow card twice in one game is ejected, and his team must compete a player short for the remainder of the match. If a single foul is violent enough, the referee may immediately show the player a red card, which means automatic ejection. Soccer uses the yellow and red card system throughout the world. This means that even if the players and referee do not speak the same language, everyone can understand the referees actions.

Two assistants, known as linesmen or referees assistants, aid the referee. Their primary job is to alert the referee when balls go out of the playing area and to assist in making offsides calls. The assistants carry flags, which they wave when the ball leaves the playing area or use to point to the spot where a foul was committed.