The Basics

Football is played between two teams of eleven players on a rectangular grass or artificial pitch. Each team attempts to move a spherical ball into the opposing team's goal using any part of the body except the arms and hands — the goalkeeper being the only player permitted to handle the ball, and only within the penalty area. The team that scores the most goals wins.

A standard match consists of two halves of forty-five minutes each, with a fifteen-minute interval between them. Stoppage time is added to compensate for time lost to injuries, substitutions, and delays. Unlike most sports, the clock does not stop; only the referee knows exactly how much stoppage time will be added, and they announce it at the end of each half. This creates a persistent uncertainty that is, for many fans, the essence of the sport.

If a knockout match is tied after ninety minutes, it proceeds to thirty minutes of extra time, then — if still level — to a penalty shootout. The penalty shootout is the most compressed, high-stakes format in the sport: five kicks per team, alternating, from twelve yards out, decided by the reactions of a goalkeeper and the nerve of a player standing alone with the ball.

The Structure of Play

Football is a free-flowing sport with few stoppages. Play is interrupted by fouls, the ball leaving the field of play, and goals. Otherwise, it continues. This means that the tempo and structure of a match emerge organically from the actions of the players rather than being imposed by the rules.

Teams organise themselves in formations that describe the arrangement of outfield players. A 4-3-3 has four defenders, three midfielders, and three forwards. A 4-4-2 has four defenders, four midfielders, and two forwards. These are starting structures, not fixed positions; players move continuously across the pitch in response to where the ball is and what the opposition does.

Tactics in football concern how to create and prevent goalscoring opportunities. Pressing — closing down the opposition quickly to win the ball high up the pitch — became the dominant tactical philosophy of the 2010s. Possession — maintaining the ball to control the rhythm of the game — was its predecessor. The tactical evolution of football is continuous and has accelerated as data analysis entered the game.

Global Reach

Football is played in 211 FIFA member nations — more than are members of the United Nations. It is the dominant sport on every continent except North America. The FIFA World Cup, held every four years, is the most watched sporting event in human history. The 2022 final between Argentina and France drew an estimated audience of over 1.5 billion people.

Club football runs parallel to international football. The largest clubs — Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich — have global fanbases that rival those of national teams. The UEFA Champions League, contested among the top clubs in Europe, generates billions in revenue and is watched by hundreds of millions of people.

History

Association football was codified by the Football Association in London in 1863, when a meeting of clubs agreed on a standardised set of rules. These rules diverged from rugby football on the question of handling the ball — one faction wanted it allowed, one faction did not. The factions separated, and two sports were born.

Football spread globally through British sailors, traders, and administrators in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By 1900 it had taken root in South America and most of Europe. By 1950 it was the world's sport. No other game has spread so completely, so quickly, across such different cultures and conditions.