Football, also known as soccer in North America and Oceania, is a game in which two teams of 11 players each try to maneuver the ball into the opposing team’s goal using any part of their body except their hands and arms. The team with the most number of goals wins. With around 4 billion fans worldwide, football holds the title of the most popular sport in the world. If we go into the history of the game, the roots of modern football can be traced back to 19th century Britain, where the game was codified at the English Public Schools. Presently, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the global governing body of the sport.

How is the game played?

Time: A game is 90 minutes long excluding any stoppages such as player injuries, substitution,etc. It has a half time interval of 15 minutes during which the teams change ends. If neither side wins during this time, ‘extra time’ is played to establish the winner and if required a series of penalty kicks are taken.

Field Markings: For international matches, the playing field should be 100-110 m long (also known as the touch line) and 64-75 m wide (also known as the goal line). It is divided into two halves with a halfway line, a circle of 9.15 m radius is marked around the center mark of the halfway line. No opposition player should enter the circle during the kickoff. The goal post is 5.5 m long and 18.23 m wide. The penalty area is a bigger box which integrates the goal area and the penalty mark and is 16.5 m long and 40.32 m wide. The penalty mark is 11 m from the goal line.
Rules: The following are some basic rules that you must know:

• The ball is considered to be out of play when it crosses either the touch line or goal line or the referee has blown the whistle to pause the game.
• If an attacking player in the opponent’s half is closer to the opponent’s goal line than both the second-last opponent and the ball, then the player is considered to be in an offside position and can be penalized if the referee believes that he/ she is gaining an advantage over the opposition. It is one of the trickiest rules of the game.
• A penalty kick is awarded to the team if the opposition player commits a major foul.
• A throw-in is awarded to a team when the ball has gone out of touch line and the last touch of the ball is by an opposing player.
• Kicking, tripping, striking, head butting and pushing another player can lead to fouls and invite a yellow card, which is used by the referee to caution the player, two yellow cards make for a red card. A red card means that the player is sent off. In most of the leagues, a red card leads to a suspension of upto 3 consecutive games, if the player is found guilty.

Since football is the most popular sport in the world, the best players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar have gained immense popularity. In India, Baichung Bhutia and Sunil Chhetri are among the most celebrated Indian players. Sunil Chhetri is the third-highest international goalscorer among the active players.

Football in India

The All India Football Federation is the governing body for the sport in India. It was established in 1937 and has been a part of FIFA since 1948. It is also the founding member of Asian Football Confederation. The prominent national level football competitions include the Santosh Cup which was founded in 1941 and is played every year. Currently, the Indian Super League is India's top domestic football league which has eight teams and aims to promote football in the country and in the world.

The following are some of India’s major international achievements in the sport:

• The Indian team won a gold at the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games. The period of 1951-1962 is considered as the ‘golden phase of Indian football’.
• At the 1956 Olympics, India reached the football semi-final, becoming the first Asian country to do so. It ended up finishing fourth.
• In 1970, the team won a bronze at the Asian Games. Four years later the Indian youth team jointly won the Youth Asian Cup with Iran.
• 24th September, 1977 was a golden day for Indian club football as Mohun Bagan managed a memorable 2–2 draw against New York Cosmos led by Pele.
• Indian women’s team were runners-up at the 1980 and 1983 AFC Women’s Asia Cup.
• The Indian national team won the Nehru Cup for the first time in 2007 and then again in 2009.
• India hosted the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017. This was the first time that an Indian team participated in the finals of a FIFA organized world tournament.