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 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.

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, except for their hands or arms, to control, strike, or pass the ball; the head, chest, and thighs are commonly used. 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. 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 may go 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. National associations (e.g. the FA in England, U.S. Soccer in the United States, etc.) 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. The most prestigious senior international competition is the FIFA World Cup. The men's World Cup is the most-viewed sporting event in the world, surpassing the Olympic Games. The most prestigious competition in European club football is the UEFA Champions League, which attracts an extensive television audience worldwide. The final of the men's Champions League is the most-watched annual sporting event in the world. (Full article...)

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The FIFA World Cup is an international football competition contested by the men's national football teams of the member nations of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

The tournament's final phase, often called the World Cup Finals, is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final. The current format of the Finals involves thirty-two national teams competing at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month.

Its success has led to the creation of, amongst others, the FIFA Women's World Cup and Under-17 and Under-20 male and female youth competitions as well as similar non-FIFA competitions such as the Homeless World Cup. (Full article...)

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Henrik Larsson playing for Barcelona in 2006

Henrik Larsson MBE (born September 20, 1971 in Helsingborg, Skåne) is a Swedish footballer. Larsson is best known for helping win four titles in seven years for Scottish club Celtic. He subsequently had a two-year spell at Barcelona of Spain, where he won two titles and the Champions League. He is the top scorer of all time in the UEFA Cup and one of the top ten scorers of all time in all UEFA club competitions.

Larsson amassed 93 caps over 13 years for Sweden, scoring 36 goals. In the summer of 2006 he retired from international football and returned to his home town club of Helsingborgs IF. He later joined Manchester United on a brief loan spell between January and March 2007.

Larsson amassed 93 caps over 13 years for Sweden, scoring 36 goals. In November 2003, the Swedish Football Association bestowed upon him the accolade "greatest Swedish football player of the last 50 years" as part of UEFA's Jubilee celebrations. (Full article...)

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The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF (/ˈkɒŋkəkæf/ KONG-kə-kaf; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 41 member associations represent countries and territories mainly in North America, including the Caribbean and Central America, and, for geopolitical reasons, 3 nations from the Guianas subregion of South America-Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana (an overseas region of France). The CONCACAF's primary functions are to organize competitions for national teams and clubs, and to conduct the World Cup and Women's World Cup qualifying tournaments.

The CONCACAF was founded in its current form on 18 September 1961 in Mexico City, Mexico, with the merger of the NAFC and the CCCF, which made it one of the then five, now six, continental confederations affiliated with FIFA. Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao, Aruba), Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname and the United States were founding members. (Full article...)

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... 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 football manager Darren Moore led Sheffield Wednesday to promotion even after they lost the first leg of their play-off semi-final 4–0?
... 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 Ecuadorian footballer Hernán Galíndez won a bicycle for beating a team featuring Lionel Messi when they were children?
... that Ryan Roberts, a defensive end for Notre Dame, was a soccer player in high school?

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Ghana national football team

Credit: cs.wikipedia user Koky

Appearing in the World Cup for the first time, Ghana came second in Group E of the 2006 FIFA World Cup and were beaten in the Round of 16 by Brazil. Their group wins over the Czech Republic (pictured) and the United States were one of the biggest surprises of the tournament.

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I told myself before the game, 'he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else' - but I was wrong.

— Tarcisio Burgnich, regarding Pelé, in the 1970 World Cup Finals.

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

Image 1Mia Hamm (left) battles with German defender Kerstin Stegemann (from Women's association football)
Image 2An 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 3FC de Rakt DA1 (2008/2009) (from Women's association football)
Image 4Arsenal in 2007 of the Women's FA Cup. (from Women's association football)
Image 5From 1866 to 1883, the laws provided for a tape between the goalposts (from Laws of the Game (association football))
Image 6Marta of Brazil is the all-time leading scorer of the senior FIFA World Cups. (from Women's association football)
Image 7The 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 8Florida state vs North Carolina soccer 2005. (from Women's association football)
Image 9Portland Thorns traveling supporters at Seattle's Memorial Stadium. (from Women's association football)
Image 10Harrow School team of 1867. (from History of association football)
Image 11Players 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 12Sheffield F.C. (here pictured in 1876) is the oldest association club still active, having been founded in 1857 (from History of association football)
Image 13United States Abby Wambach plays off a corner kick against Canada.
Image 14Cricket 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 15Drawing of the first international game by artist William Ralston (from History of association football)
Image 16A Welsh women's football team pose for a photograph in 1959 (from Women's association football)
Image 17Japanese high-school girls playing football in their traditional hakama with one team wearing sashes (c. 1920) (from Women's association football)
Image 18Iran women's national football team maintained a higher rank internationally. (from Women's association football)
Image 19The Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies (from Women's association football)
Image 20Striker 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)
Image 21When 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 22Representation of a football match from the book Athletics and football, 1894. The goal has no net. (from History of association football)
Image 23Old Etonians v Blackburn Rovers match. Illustration by S.T. Dadd, 1882 (from History of association football)
Image 24Olympique Lyonnais vs Paris Saint-Germain. (from Women's association football)
Image 25Sam Kerr with Australia during the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup quarterfinal against Japan in Edmonton, 2015 (from Women's association football)
Image 26"North" team of the British Ladies' Football Club, 1895 (from Women's association football)
Image 27The Royal Engineers team who reached the first FA Cup final in 1872 (from History of association football)
Image 28Iran vs Turkey in 2010 Youth Olympics (from Women's association football)
Image 29Megan Rapinoe speaks on equal pay in March 2021. (from Women's association football)

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The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. The bidding process for hosting the tournament finals was open only to African nations. In 2004, the international football federation, FIFA, selected South Africa over Egypt and Morocco to become the first African nation to host the finals.

The matches were played in 10 stadiums in nine host cities around the country, with the opening and final played at the Soccer City stadium in South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg. Thirty-two teams were selected for participation via a worldwide qualification tournament that began in August 2007. In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These 16 teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final. (Full article...)

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List of Players of the Year

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... that both of Scunthorpe United's substitutes failed to score their penalties in the shootout, which saw them lose the 1992 Football League Fourth Division play-off Final? (21 April 2021)
... that Manjappada, a supporters' group of Kerala Blasters FC, coordinated and brought forty-one busloads of their fans across Kerala to the venue for the opening match of the 2019–20 season? (26 January 2021)
... that despite smoking in football formerly being popular, it has since been banned from the touchline by UEFA? (17 June 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 the French football club GPSO 92 Issy was founded by three Peruvian sisters in 1997? (8 April 2021)
... that Bradford City scored three goals in 13 minutes to secure promotion in the 2013 Football League Two play-off Final? (21 February 2021)