Soccer Rules

As with all sports, armature and professional, there are rules (laws of the game) that all
players must adhere to. These rules are put in place for:

The players and fans safety
The fans safety
The referee safety

In addition, the rules are put in place as to not give any unfair advantage to any team.
In soccer, for example, the offside rules were implemented when team became more
and more tactical. Without the offside rule, attackers would often have a torpid role in
the team. An attacker will stay up front and wait for the ball to come. The offside rule
forced attackers to work as much as the other players on the field during a game.

Here are some of the official soccer rules in today’s game.

Soccer field dimensions - not all soccer fields have the exact same size. According to
FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association or the International Federation
of Association Football) a smallest length and width size soccer field must have a
minimum length of 100 yards (90 meters) long and minimum of a width of 50 yards (45
meters) wide. The maximum length must be 130 yards (120 meters) long and as
maximum width of 100 yards (90 meters) wide.

Soccer can be played on any open surface. But to be considered an official soccer field
according to FIFA it must fall in the specified dimension constructed.

Number of players – There can be up to 22 players on any give soccer team. The official
soccer rules states that each team can only have 11 players (one of which is the
goalkeeper) on the field at one time.

The number of substitutes depends on the level of the competition. In official FIFA
matches the number of substitutes can range from none to 7, with 3 substitutions
eligible for each of the two teams.

In friendly matches, tournaments, pickup games, high school modified, junior varsity and
varsity there are unlimited number of substitution that is allowed during the a game.
Ball in/out play soccer rules – The ball is in play whenever it is between the lines of the
field.

Fouls – Another soccer rule is called a Foul. They are difficult to call because they can be
easily be misjudge or misinterpreted by the referee. A call of a foul usually causes
arguments on and off the field. When a foul is whistled a direct or indirect kick is given
an example, of a foul is awarded to a team when a player is trips, kicks, pushes,
punches, charges or holds an opponent.

However, in the fast pace of the game, it's often hard for the referee to see if a tackle
touches the feet of the attacker or the ball. It's considered a foul even if the defending
player doesn't touch the attacker at all, but has a dangerous intervention such as a
high kick.

Goals – Scoring a soccer goal is the main objective of playing the game of soccer. That is
what determined the outcome of the game.

To score a goal, one team must kick the soccer ball beyond the other team's goal line. A
player can kick the ball, head the ball or push it in with any other body part other than
the hand (in which case it is considered handball).

A goal can be called off if it was scored if the player failed to follow one of the other
soccer rules, such as:

Fouling a defender or the goalkeeper
Using his hand to control the ball
Being offside
Scoring directly from an indirect free kick.

These are just some of the basic soccer rules. If you understand these, you'll be able to
watch and play, and understand the game of soccer without problems.

Darrell Stuart . com
Development for Soccer Players and Coaches

Soccer Rules
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