Association football
Association football, also known as soccer, or in many places just football, is the world's most popular sport. Not only does it have the most fans of any sport worldwide, but it also inspires the passions of fans to a level rarely seen in any other sport. Unlike in most other sports, rivalries in association football often go beyond mere sporting rivalries, instead tracing their roots much deeper to more contentious issues such as politics and religion.
The season for football varies by country. Freezing winters, rainy summers, or competition with more popular national sports lead to it being a winter sport in some countries, and a summer sport in others. Many Latin American leagues, and some others around the world, have adopted a split season format.
Understand
editRules
editAssociation football is played between teams of 11 players, which comprise of a goalkeeper and 10 outfield players. There objective of the game is to score more goals than your opponent. Games consist of two 45-minute halves, with time added at the end of each half to compensate for any stoppages to play. If the two teams end with the same number of goals at the end of the 2nd half, the match usually ends in a draw, but in knockout matches where a winner has to be determined, the game goes into extra time, played in two halves of 15 minutes each. If no winner can be determined at the end of extra time, the game goes into a penalty shootout, in which players will take turns to shoot the ball one-on-one with the goalkeeper. The team that scores more penalty kicks after each team has taken five kicks wins the penalty shootout, but if it is still tied after both teams have taken five kicks, the penalty shootout goes into sudden death, in which the first team that fails to score when the other scores loses the shootout.
Players other than the goalkeeper are not allowed to touch the ball with any part of their arms or hands, and doing so is an infringement known as handball. The goalkeeper may only use his hands to handle the ball inside his own penalty area, and may not touch the ball with his hands when receiving a kicked pass from a teammate (but may for a headed pass). An infringement is punished by a free kick to the opponent from the spot that the infringement occurred. Depending on the infringement, the free kick may be direct or indirect, with the difference relating to whether a goal can be scored directly from the kick. A foul, or a handball by a player other than the defending goalkeeper, within the penalty box results in a penalty kick, in which one of the attacking players can attempt a shot at goal unimpeded by the opposition, with only the goalkeeper between the kick taker and the goal. (A handball by the goalkeeper within the keeper's own penalty area does not result in a penalty kick, but instead an indirect free kick.) More serious infringements can result in a yellow card, in which the player is given a warning, or a red card, in which the player is ejected from the game and cannot be substituted. Two yellow cards for the same player automatically result in a red card.
If a player puts the ball out of play over the touch lines (the lines on either side of the playing area), the opposing team gets to restart play through a throw in, in which the ball is thrown over the head back onto the field. If an attacking player puts the ball out of play over the opponent's goal line (the line on either end of the playing area), play is restarted through a goal kick by the defending team, in which the ball is kicked back into play from inside the goal area (the small box surrounding the goal posts), usually by the goalkeeper. If a defending player puts the ball out of play over his own goal line, play is restarted through a corner kick by the attacking team, in which the ball is kicked back into play from the nearest corner of the playing field. During corner kicks or free kicks near the opponent's goal, it is common for central defenders to join the attack to attempt to score goals from headers, as central defenders are usually the strongest players in the air. Attacking players may not be positioned behind the defending team's second-to-last player (including the goalkeeper) before the ball is played to them; doing so is an infringement known as offside, in which an indirect free kick is awarded to the defending team. Players cannot be offside when receiving a ball from a throw in, a corner kick, a goal kick, if they were behind the teammate passing the ball to them at the time it was played, or in their own half at the time the ball is played.
In league competitions, and in the group stages of cup competitions, teams are ranked by total number of points, with three points awarded for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. If two or more teams are tied in points, then in most competitions the teams in question are ranked by goal difference (the number of goals conceded subtracted from the number of goals scored), followed by the total number of goals scored if the teams are tied on goal difference. If the teams are still tied, then the head-to-head record between the teams are used to break the tie. However, in European continental competitions, the head-to-head record is used as the first tiebreaker before goal difference and goals scored.
In two-legged knockout games, where both teams take turns to host each other, the team that scores more goals at the end of both matches wins. If the teams are tied at the end of both legs, then usually the tie is broken using the away goals rule, in which the team that scored more goals away from home is declared the winner (a rule no longer used in European club competitions). If they are still tied at the end of the second leg, then the game goes into two 15-minute halves of extra time, and if the teams are still tied on both total goals and away goals at the end of extra time (except in European club competitions, which no longer use away goals, and North American continental competitions, where the away goes rule is not applied at the end of extra time), the game goes into a penalty shootout.
Competitions
edit- The FIFA World Cup is the most prestigious football tournament in the world for men, and is held every four years between national teams, in the middle year of the Summer Olympics cycle (same year as the Winter Olympics). It is one of the world's most watched sporting events, rivalled only by the Summer Olympics. Brazil is the most successful team in the FIFA World Cup, having won the trophy five times, and they are followed by Italy and Germany who have four titles each, Argentina with three, Uruguay and France with two each, and England and Spain with one apiece. The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
- The FIFA Women's World Cup is the premier tournament for women's national teams. It is held every four years, in the year before the Summer Olympics. The next edition in 2027 will be hosted by Brazil. The United States has been most successful in the WWC, having won four times, followed by Germany with two wins, and one win each from Norway, Japan and Spain.
- The football competition at the Summer Olympics is less prestigious than the FIFA World Cup, and the men's event is restricted to players aged 23 and younger (with up to 3 over-aged players allowed per team). Also, the men's event is not included in the official FIFA match calendar, meaning that clubs do not have to release players for the Olympics. The women's tournament, on the other hand, is a full international tournament within the FIFA match calendar, featuring full-strength national teams. However, Olympic squads for both men and women are limited to 18 players instead of the 23 allowed in most other FIFA competitions.
- The FIFA Club World Cup is an annual tournament between the most recent continental club champions for men. Although it is supposed to be the pinnacle of club football, in reality it is much less watched and less prestigious than the UEFA Champions League.
- Each continent also has its own continental competitions for clubs and national teams, which are listed in the section below. Europe's UEFA Champions League is by far the most prestigious club tournament in the world, while for national teams, the European Championships (often shortened to just Euros) and Copa América (South American continental championship), both held in the same year as the Summer Olympics, are the most highly regarded of the continental championships.
- The Finalissima is a single match between the reigning Euro and Copa América champions, played in the year after both tournaments. The Women's Finalissima features the Women's Euro and Copa América Femenina champions, and is also a single match played in the year after both tournaments.
- Most countries also have their own domestic leagues, through which the clubs qualify for continental tournaments. The domestic leagues of Europe stand out as head and shoulders above the rest in the quality of football; see Association football in Europe for more details. In addition to the league, most countries also have a domestic cup competition, which are usually in a single-elimination format, and where lower-division clubs with only amateur players can sometimes pull off "giant killing" feats against the big clubs with world-class players.
Destinations
editWhile most of the top African players ply their trade in Europe rather than in their home countries, there is certainly no shortage of passion from African football fans. Consider watching an international match, as many world-class African players will return from Europe to play for their respective national teams. The main continental club competition is the CAF Champions League. Men's national teams compete for the Africa Cup of Nations (often shortened to AFCON), which is held in odd-numbered years. Africa also has the African Nations Championship, which is held in even-numbered years, but unlike AFCON, national teams may only field players who play in their respective countries' domestic leagues; expatriate players, even if they play elsewhere in Africa, are not eligible to participate.
While the Egyptian national team has often underperformed on the world stage, Egyptian clubs have largely dominated African continental competitions. The top division in Egyptian domestic football is the Egyptian Premier League. By far the largest rivalry in Egypt is the Cairo Derby between Al Ahly and Zamalek[dead link]. Violent incidents between fans of the two rival clubs are a regular occurrence.
Soccer is the most popular sport in South Africa. Like other sports, it has also been tied up in the bitter history of racial politics in the country. To this day, the popularity of various sports largely correlates with one's ethnic background; rugby union is the most popular sport among Afrikaners, cricket among English-speaking whites, while soccer dominates among black South Africans. That said, since the fall of Apartheid, like the other sports, soccer is increasingly being enjoyed by South Africans of all ethnic backgrounds.
While the South African national team has underperformed on the international stage, its domestic league is one of the best funded in Africa. The top division in South Africa is the South African Premier Division. Its most popular clubs are Johannesburg-based Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, while Pretoria-based Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United are also making inroads.
Many top Asian players ply their trade in Europe rather than in their home countries, though many of the wealthier countries in the region keep most of their best players at home. While football passion is widespread in the continent, it's not uniform — many key countries in the region have more popular sports. For example, cricket dominates the sports scene in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; the Philippines is wildly passionate about basketball; the most widely-followed sport in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan is baseball; and Australia (which for football purposes is grouped with Asia instead of its geographical region of Oceania) has multiple sports that draw more attention than soccer. The main continental club competition is the AFC Champions League. Men's national teams compete for the AFC Asian Cup, held in the year after the FIFA World Cup.
Australia, where the sport is usually called "soccer" instead of "football", is unique in that soccer is at best the third-most popular type of football in the country. Australian rules football and rugby league are indisputably more popular than soccer, with rugby union also enjoying significant popularity (though in the 21st century soccer has surpassed the 15-man code). Cricket is also a national obsession during its season. That said, the country has enjoyed a soccer boom in the 21st century, with both the men's and women's national teams regularly qualifying for World Cups, and Europe's top domestic leagues regularly featuring Australian players. Australia is a member of Asia's football governing body instead of Oceania's, meaning that the national teams compete for the Asian Cup and men's club teams (except the one New Zealand-based team in the country's top league) can qualify for the AFC Champions League.
The top men's league is A-League Men, with 12 teams (11 in Australia and one in New Zealand) in the 2023–24 season. The league does not operate like most sports leagues in the world — it does not employ promotion and relegation (in which poorly-performing teams are dropped to a lower league, replaced by top performers from the second level). Teams are franchises granted by the league, and remain in the league unless they fold. (Sports in the US and Canada also operate on this model.) Due to competition from the country's other football codes, all of which are traditionally winter sports, the A-League Men season spans two calendar years, meaning that it runs parallel to most northern hemisphere leagues.
The top women's league is A-League Women (renamed from W-League in 2021), which also has 12 teams in 2023–24. Like its men's counterpart, all current teams are based in Australia except for one in New Zealand. Almost all teams are run by A-League Men sides. The season runs at the same time as A-League Men, though women's teams typically play in smaller stadiums than those of the men's league. Notably, many top A-League Women players head north to play in the NWSL in the US, which plays during the northern summer. In international competition, Australia's women's team performs much better than the men's counterpart, and usually performs well at the Olympics and World Cup.
Football has been the country's most popular spectator sport since the turn of the 20th century. The top competition is the Chinese Super League[dead link] (website in Chinese only), which has 16 teams (as of 2019). In the late 2010s, it had competed strongly with North America's Major League Soccer, and with leagues in oil-rich Middle Eastern countries, as a late-career destination for European and South American stars.
Football generally plays second fiddle to cricket in India, where the latter sport is a national obsession that is often likened to a religion. The city of Kolkata is an exception to this rule, and is a football-crazy city that is home to India's two most celebrated football clubs: Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. Both teams contest the Kolkata derby, which is widely regarded as the oldest and most intense football rivalry in all of Asia. Unlike most countries, India has not one but two separate football leagues at the top division; the I-League and the Indian Super League, with the two aforementioned clubs playing in the latter.
Football is the national sport of Iran, which is one of the powerhouses of Asian football, with its national team regularly qualifying for the FIFA World Cup. The top division of Iran's domestic football league is the Persian Gulf Pro League (website in Persian only). By far the biggest rivalry in Iran is the Tehran derby between Persepolis and Esteghlal, for which virtually the entire country comes to a stop. Due to Iran's strict Islamic moral code, only men are allowed into football stadiums, and women may only watch the game on television.
Baseball has been Japan's most popular sport since before World War II, but football, locally called サッカー (sakkā) (from "soccer"), has steadily grown in popularity since the 1990s. Japan has developed a reputation for being giant killers in the 21st century, defeating the much more fancied Colombia in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and defeating the giants of Spain and Germany in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The country supports a men's professional league system known as the J.League[dead link], with its top level being the J1 League. A fully professional women's league, the WE League, started play in 2021–22.
Saudi Arabia is one of the powerhouses of Asian football, and is a football-crazy country, with its national team regularly qualifying for the FIFA World Cup. This is despite the fact that all the best Saudi players ply their trade domestically. What this means is that there is also immense passion for domestic club games. The top Saudi tier of Saudi football is known as the Saudi Pro League, which has emerged in very recent years as a late-career destination for superstars, most notably Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, and Karim Benzema. The most famous rivalry in Saudi Arabia is between Jeddah-based Al-Ittihad and Riyadh-based Al-Hilal known as the Saudi Derby or Saudi El Clasico (in reference to the original El Clásico in Spain), and matches between the two sides are guaranteed to draw partisan sellout crowds. Due to its strict Islamic moral code, only men are allowed to watch men's football matches in Saudi Arabia, and women are banned from football stadiums.
Baseball is South Korea's most popular sport, though the popularity of soccer has spiked substantially since the South Korean national team reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2002, beating heavily fancied teams like Portugal, Italy and Spain along the way. The K League is South Korea's men's professional league system, with its top division being the K League 1.
- Main article: Association football in Europe
While many other areas have fans that are no less passionate, Europe stands out for the sheer quality of its domestic leagues, which are head and shoulders above those in the rest of the world. The dream of most top players from all around the world is to play for one of Europe's top clubs such as Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Bayern München or Juventus, and Europe's continental club competition, the UEFA Champions League is widely regarded to be the best in the world. Most die-hard fans regard the quality of football in the UEFA Champions League to be even higher than that in the FIFA World Cup. Men's national teams compete in the UEFA European Championship, more commonly known as Euro (year), held in the middle year of the FIFA World Cup cycle (also the same year as the Summer Olympics).
Association football (at least the men's version) is generally a fringe sport in the two main English-speaking nations of the United States and Canada, though it is the national sport of several Spanish-speaking countries in the region, and is also popular in much of the English-speaking Caribbean. The main continental club competition of North America is the CONCACAF Champions Cup (formerly the Champions League), which has been dominated by Mexican clubs, with Costa Rican and American clubs occasionally breaking the Mexican stranglehold on the competition. Men's national teams compete in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, held in odd-numbered years.
Much like its neighbour to the south, Canada has been slow to embrace soccer, with the sports landscape dominated by ice hockey. Moreover, both Canadian football and its American counterpart south of the border enjoy more popularity than soccer in Canada. Soccer has nonetheless boomed in the 21st century, especially in the country's three largest metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, which all field teams in the United States-based MLS. The men's national team experienced a meteoric rise in the early 2020s, topping the final CONCACAF qualifying group for the 2022 World Cup, and reaching the semi-finals of the 2024 Copa América. In 2019, the country launched a new top-level men's league, the Canadian Premier League. Although Canada's soccer authorities consider the CPL its top professional level, MLS is clearly superior to the CPL in both level of play and popularity. The CPL has chosen to largely avoid competition with MLS, placing most of its teams outside of MLS markets. The CPL regular season runs from late April to October.
Canada has no top-level women's competition for now, though the Northern Super League is scheduled to launch in 2025 with five teams confirmed and one more expected. Like the U.S., its women's national team performs much better than the men's counterpart on the international stage, having won the gold medal in the 2020 (2021) Olympics (though it went out in the group stage of the 2023 World Cup). Most Canadian national team members play in the top US league, the NWSL.
Football is the national sport of Costa Rica, which has emerged as a regional powerhouse in the 21st century that is increasingly threatening to break the Mexican and American stranglehold on continental competitions.
The top domestic league in Costa Rica is the Liga FPD, and the "Big 3" clubs of Costa Rica are San José-based Deportivo Saprissa, Alajuela-based Alajuelense and Heredia-based Herediano.
Football is the national sport of Mexico, and while the Mexican national team has somewhat languished behind those of South America, there is no shortage of passion from Mexican football fans. The top domestic league in Mexico is the Liga MX, which is one of the richest domestic leagues outside Europe. As a result, unlike in other Latin American countries, most of the top Mexican players choose to remain in Mexico, with only a handful heading over to Europe to develop their careers. Though many rivalries exist, by far the largest one is El Súper Clásico between Mexico City-based América and Guadalajara-based Chivas, with matches between the two sides guaranteed to sell out way in advance. Besides the aforementioned two, Cruz Azul and Pumas, both based in Mexico City, round up the "Big Four". The top women's league, Liga MX Femenil, is an emerging professional league, with many young American players, especially those of Mexican descent (who qualify as "domestic" players under league rules), choosing to start their professional careers in that country.
Though its popularity still lags far behind the three biggest sports of American football, baseball, and basketball, soccer has enjoyed a major surge in popularity in the U.S. since the turn of the 21st century, thanks in part to a growing Latino population, and the U.S. men's national soccer team has performed decently in the World Cup since 2002. As of the current 2024 season, MLS (Major League Soccer) has 29 teams—26 in the U.S. plus three in Canada. Another U.S. team will be added in 2025. Its Designated Player Rule (which allows each team to exceed the league's salary cap to sign up to three players) has made it a preferred destination for top players from European leagues who are past their prime as well as younger talent from around the world. Because of the schedules of other U.S. sports, the MLS regular season runs March to October, with MLS Cup playoffs from October to December.
In women's soccer, the U.S. is the world's dominant force, having won more Olympic gold medals and World Cups than any other team. A combination of injuries, questionable coaching, and a broken youth system led to the country's earliest-ever exit in the World Cup in 2023 (round of 16), but a younger team surged back to win Olympic gold the next year. The country's main league is the NWSL (National Women's Soccer League), which unlike MLS operates solely in the US. The league has 14 teams in its ongoing 2024 season, with the season largely paralleling that of MLS. One more team is confirmed to be joining in 2026. The NWSL now has competition as the top women's league in the form of the USL Super League (USLS). It's operated by the United Soccer League, an organization that runs many lower-level leagues for men, women, and youth. USLS started play in August 2024 with 8 teams, with at least that number of teams planning to join in the near future. Unlike most other U.S. soccer leagues, USLS plays a fall-to-spring schedule, in line with the FIFA calendar and most European leagues.
Oceania is a backwater for association football, with both codes of rugby ruling the roost. Since Australia competes within the Asian association football structure, New Zealand is the only country of note in the sport, but even there it is only the third most popular sport after rugby union and cricket. Other countries mostly serve as the whipping boys for New Zealand in international competitions, though they have on rare occasions managed to pull off upsets.
The main continental club competition in Oceania is the OFC Champions League, while the main competition for national teams is the OFC Nations Cup, both run by the Oceania Football Confederation
Soccer is the third most popular spectator sport in New Zealand after rugby union and cricket, and top New Zealander players have occasionally made it into one of Europe's top domestic leagues.
New Zealand does not have a fully professional domestic soccer league, with its only fully professional club, the Wellington Phoenix, playing in Australia's A-League Men instead. The top domestic soccer league in New Zealand is the semi-professional National League Championship, which features 10 teams from around the country. The only fully professional women's side is fielded by the Wellington Phoenix, playing in Australia's A-League Women. As of 2022, the women's National League Championship, which like its men's counterpart is semi-professional, is transitioning from a model in which all teams were regional selections operated by the national federation to a club-based model.
Along with Europe, South America is generally considered to produce the world's best footballers, and their fans are certainly no less passionate, with violent incidents between fans of opposing sides being a regular occurrence. In much of the continent, it is often said that football is not just a sport but the national religion. Although most of the top South American players ply their trade in Europe, the local leagues are generally of a high standard too, and if you're lucky, you might be able to catch one of the future superstars of European football in action. Also consider watching a match between national teams, as many Europe-based players will make the trip back to South America to play for their respective national teams. In particular, the rivalry between Brazil and Argentina is widely regarded as one of the world's most iconic rivalries. The main continental club competition in South America is known as the Copa Libertadores. Men's national teams compete in the Copa América; from 2020, it will be held in the middle year of the FIFA World Cup cycle (also the same year as the Summer Olympics and UEFA Euro).
Argentinians take their football very seriously; the top division in Argentinian domestic football is the Primera División, also known as the Superliga. Perhaps no match anywhere else in the world inspires more passion than Superclásico between the Buenos Aires teams of River Plate and Boca Juniors, with Boca Juniors traditionally regarded as the club of the working class, and River Plate traditionally regarded as the club of the upper class. The rivalry is so acrimonious that rioting, and even stabbings between fans of both sides are a regular occurrence.
Besides the aforementioned two clubs, the other clubs that command strong support include Independiente, Racing and San Lorenzo. Collectively, these five clubs are known as the "Big Five" (Los 5 Grandes) of Argentinian football.
Perhaps no other country inspires football passions like Brazil. The Brazilian style of football is particularly known for its beauty, and is often called samba football. The top domestic competition in Brazil is the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, also known as the Brasileirão.
Due to Brazil's immense size (larger than either Australia or the contiguous United States), the distance between many of its major cities, and economic issues, national competitions developed much later than they did in most of the world. A national championship was not established until 1959, and the Brasileirão did not exist in its current form until 1971. Before that time, Brazilian domestic football consisted of state-level competitions, which operate to this day and are followed every bit as passionately as the Brasileirão. Today, state competitions typically run from January to late April or early May, with the Brasileirão occupying the rest of the calendar year.
As would be expected of a country so passionate about its football, numerous rivalries exist throughout the country. Some of the more famous ones are Fla-Flu between the Rio de Janeiro sides Flamengo and Fluminense; the Derby Paulista between the São Paulo sides Palmeiras and Corinthians, and Grenal between the Porto Alegre sides Grêmio and Internacional. Other Brazilian clubs that enjoy strong support include São Paulo-based Santos and São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro-based Botafogo and Vasco da Gama, and Belo Horizonte-based Cruzeiro and Atlético Mineiro.
Uruguay has a proud footballing tradition, having produced numerous world-class players and won two FIFA World Cups despite having a population of only 3 million. The top domestic football competition in Uruguay is the Primera División. The Clásico del fútbol uruguayo between the two Montevideo clubs of Peñarol and Nacional is the biggest football rivalry in Uruguay, and matches between the two sides are guaranteed to draw partisan sellout crowds.
Stay safe
edit
In some association football events, violent football hooligans could threaten spectators, especially for supporters of the opposite team. Large-scale, citywide or even nationwide celebration or riots could also happen after important matches. Large police presence is often deployed in matches to enforce crowd control and curb early violence, and there are specific measures to ban previous offenders from entering venues in some countries. Avoid unlawful assemblies, and follow the instruction of law enforcement.
Football hooliganism may exist outside of matches. Wearing jerseys or supporting rival teams could draw unwanted attention or even hostility in the home team's destination.
Football betting, whether conducted in person or online, could be illegal in some countries, and offenders may face arrest and imprisonment. Illegal betting are often controlled by organized criminal groups, and bettors could easily place themselves in danger (especially when they're indebted due to loses or have borrowed money from them). Even for legal football betting, you may want to seek advice if you find yourself losing control.