Portal:Association football

The Association football portal

The referee officiates in a football match

Association football, more commonly known as football, or, in some countries, soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a ball around 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 opponent. 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. 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, but only within their own penalty area. 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. (Full article...)

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Melbourne Victory FC celebrating after their 2007 A-League Grand Final victory

Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional association football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory entered the competition in the inaugural season as the only Victorian-based club in the newly revamped domestic Australian league.

Recognised as the second most successful club in the league to date, Victory has won four A-League Championships, three A-League Premierships, one Pre-Season Challenge Cup and two Australia Cups, the only club to have won all four domestic trophies in the modern era of Australian soccer. They have also competed in the AFC Champions League on seven occasions, most recently in 2020. Their furthest placement in the tournament was in the 2016 campaign and 2020 campaign, where they were knocked out in the Round of 16 by the eventual champion on both occasions.

The club's home ground is the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, currently known as AAMI Park for sponsorship purposes, a 30,050-seat stadium on Olympic Boulevard in Melbourne's city centre. The Victory has previously played its home matches at other stadiums throughout Melbourne and surrounding areas, including Olympic Park Stadium, Docklands Stadium and Kardinia Park. (Full article...)

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Cesc Fàbregas

Francesc "Cesc" Fàbregas i Soler (born May 4, 1987 in Arenys de Mar, Catalonia, Spain), commonly known as Cesc Fàbregas, is a Spanish footballer who plays as a central midfielder.

Fàbregas started his career as a trainee with FC Barcelona but signed by Arsenal in July 2003 looking for regular first team football. He did not feature much in his first season for the Gunners, but following injuries to key midfielders in the 2004–05 season, his playing time increased. Before long, he had established himself as Arsenal's starting central midfielder and playmaker and went on to break several of the club's records as he began to earn a reputation of a technically-gifted player, excellent passer of the ball and key component of the Arsenal lineup.

In international football, the Spaniard's national career began at the youth level, representing the Under-17 side at the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Finland. As a result of his club performances, he was called up the senior Spanish national team and played in the 2006 World Cup. (Full article...)

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The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of soccer in the United States. It is a full member of FIFA and governs American soccer at the international, professional, and amateur levels, including: the men's and women's national teams, Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), youth organizations, as well as the beach soccer, futsal, Paralympic, and deaf national teams. U.S. Soccer sanctions referees and soccer tournaments for most soccer leagues in the United States. It also administers and operates the U.S. Open Cup and SheBelieves Cup. U.S. Soccer is headquartered in Chicago. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated) -

... 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?

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Goalkeeper (football)

Photo credit: Nick Wiebe

Congo national football team goalkeeper Destin Onka (right) prevents Austrian forward Rubin Okotie (left) from scoring a goal at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. In association football, the goalkeeper is the only player who is permitted to touch the ball with his hands or arms in open play.

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General images -

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

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

Selected World Cup

The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in Sweden and won by Norway, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament featured 12 women's national teams from six continental confederations. The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four and each group played a round-robin tournament. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams and two best third-ranked teams advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the quarter-finals and culminating with the final at Råsunda Stadium on 18 June 1995.

Sweden became the first country to host both men's and women's World Cup, having hosted the men's in 1958. (Full article...)

List of selected World Cups