Football
Article
May 19, 2022
Association football, better known as football, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. About 250 million men and women from more than 200 countries play football, making it the world's most popular sport. Football is an Olympic sport. Football is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score the ball into the goal of the opposing team. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands while it is in play, unless they are goalkeepers (and only when it is in their penalty area), or while throwing the ball. Other players mostly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but can also use their head and torso. The team that scores more goals by the end of the match wins it. If no team scores a goal, or the score is the same, a draw is announced, or the game goes into extra time, or a penalty, depending on the format of the competition. The laws of the game were first codified by the Football Association of England in 1863, and later spread throughout the planet. At the global level, football is managed by the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA; Fédération Internationale de Football Association), which organizes the World Cup for men and women every four years.