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 primarily 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 only then 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, 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 or JFA) 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 senior and prestigious international competitions are the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup. The men's World Cup is the most-viewed sporting event in the world, surpassing the Olympic Games. The two most prestigious competitions in European club football are the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Women's Champions League, which attract an extensive television audience throughout the world. Since 2009, the final of the men's tournament has been the most-watched annual sporting event in the world. (Full article...)

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Manchester City pictured in 1904.

Manchester City Football Club is an English professional football club based in the city of Manchester. Originally formed in 1880 as "St. Marks (West Gorton)", they then became "Ardwick A.F.C." in 1887 before changing their name to Manchester City F.C. in 1894.

Manchester City entered the Football League in 1899, and won their first major honour with the FA Cup in 1904. It had its first major period of success in the late 1960s, winning the League, FA Cup and League Cup under the management of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. After losing the 1981 FA Cup Final, the club went through a period of decline, which eventually saw them relegated as far down as third tier of English football by the end of the 1997–98 season. They since regained promotion to the top tier in 2001–02 and have remained a fixture in the Premier League since 2002–03. In 2008, Manchester City was purchased by Abu Dhabi United Group for £210 million and received considerable financial investment.

The club have won six domestic league titles. Under the management of Pep Guardiola they won the Premier League in 2018 becoming the only Premier League team to attain 100 points in a single season. In 2019, they won four trophies, completing an unprecedented sweep of all domestic trophies in England and becoming the first English men's team to win the domestic treble.

Manchester City's biggest rivalry is with neighbours Manchester United, against whom they contest the Manchester derby. (Full article...)

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Joey Barton in action for Manchester City

Joey Barton (born 2 September 1982 in Liverpool, Merseyside) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder.

Barton was raised in a rough area and as a child saw football as a form of escapism, he began his professional career in 2002 with Manchester City after working his way through their youth system. His appearances in the senior side gradually increased in regularity over a period of five years - he made more than 150 appearances for the club in total - which earned him his first cap for the England national team in February 2007, despite his criticism of some of the team's players.

His career has been marred by numerous controversial incidents and disciplinary problems, one of which being a fight with City team-mate Ousmane Dabo which led to him leaving the club. Barton has been described as a "tough tackler", a style reflected in the high number of fouls he has committed during his career: he received 39 bookings and three red cards during his time at Manchester City. He joined Newcastle United for a fee of £5.8 million in July 2007.

Outside of football, Barton is a patron of the Tamsin Gulvin Fund and also works with the 'Get Hooked on Fishing' campaign, designed to keep children out of trouble by getting them interested in fishing. (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) on 1 January 2006 and ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) on 27 August 2013. (Full article...)

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... that Ryan Roberts, a defensive end for Notre Dame, was a soccer player in high school?
... 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?
... 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?

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Street football

Credit: Flickr user Dipanker Dutta

A game of Street football in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The term street football encompasses a wide variety of informal games that are loosely based on association football but do not necessarily enforce all, or indeed any, of the Laws of the Game. Often the most basic of set-ups will involve just a ball with a wall or fence used as a goal, or items such as clothing being used for goalposts. The ease of playing these informal games means that they are popular all over the world.

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The ball is round

— Ng Fong-wing, TVB commentator

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

Image 1Portland Thorns traveling supporters at Seattle's Memorial Stadium. (from Women's association football)
Image 2Sam Kerr with Australia during the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup quarterfinal against Japan in Edmonton, 2015 (from Women's association football)
Image 3Megan Rapinoe speaks on equal pay in March 2021. (from Women's association football)
Image 4Marta of Brazil is the all-time leading scorer of the senior FIFA World Cups. (from Women's association football)
Image 5Striker 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 6When 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 7Old Etonians v Blackburn Rovers match. Illustration by S.T. Dadd, 1882 (from History of association football)
Image 8United States Abby Wambach plays off a corner kick against Canada.
Image 9The 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 10Drawing of the first international game by artist William Ralston (from History of association football)
Image 11Arsenal in 2007 of the Women's FA Cup. (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 13Iran women's national football team maintained a higher rank internationally. (from Women's association football)
Image 14Representation of a football match from the book Athletics and football, 1894 (from History of association football)
Image 15An 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 16Japanese high-school girls playing football in their traditional hakama with one team wearing sashes (c. 1920) (from Women's association football)
Image 17Mia Hamm (left) battles with German defender Kerstin Stegemann (from Women's association football)
Image 18From 1866 to 1883, the laws provided for a tape between the goalposts (from Laws of the Game (association football))
Image 19Florida state vs North Carolina soccer 2005. (from Women's association football)
Image 20Cricket 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 21Iran vs Turkey in 2010 Youth Olympics (from Women's association football)
Image 22A Welsh women's football team pose for a photograph in 1959 (from Women's association football)
Image 23FC de Rakt DA1 (2008/2009) (from Women's association football)
Image 24Players 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 25The Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies (from Women's association football)
Image 26Olympique Lyonnais vs Paris Saint-Germain. (from Women's association football)
Image 27"North" team of the British Ladies' Football Club, 1895 (from Women's association football)
Image 28Harrow School team of 1867. (from History of association football)
Image 29The Royal Engineers team who reached the first FA Cup final in 1872 (from History of association football)

Selected World Cup

Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	B	Argentina	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	3	Advance to knockout stage
2	D	Colombia	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	3
3	F	Netherlands	3	0	3	0	2	2	0	3
4	E	Uruguay	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	3
5	A	Austria	3	1	0	2	2	3	−1	2
6	C	Scotland	3	1	0	2	2	3	−1	2

Source: FIFA

(Full article...)

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More did you know - load new batch

... that Icelandic footballer Þórdís Hrönn Sigfúsdóttir has had to self-isolate on four occasions during the COVID-19 pandemic? (18 March 2021)
... that when Irene del Río was called up to the Spain women's national football team squad, she was the only player who did not compete in the country's top division? (28 April 2021)
... that the opening goal of the 1992 Football League Third Division play-off Final was described as a "Russian linesman job"? (28 February 2021)
... that Swansea City made two appearances at the Millennium Stadium in 2006, winning the Football League Trophy but losing the Football League One play-off Final? (14 March 2021)
... that MLS Cup 2000 was the first championship game in league history not to feature D.C. United? (13 April 2021)
... that, during his time in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, footballer Ernie Curtis would obtain extra food by teaching his captors how to play with a ball made of paper? (27 March 2021)