 At its heart, football is a very simple game. There is a ball and you try to kick it into a goal while your opponent tries to do the same thing. This simplicity allows it to be played all over the world, from the side alleys to fields at the park to billion dollar stadiums. But as we progress to more organized leagues, the rules get more organized too. Football is often said to be the most popular sport in the world, in part I'm sure because it's not that difficult to understand, but not everything will make sense the first time you watch a game. But not to worry, as by the end of this video you should be able to make sense of most things that you see in a game. If you live in the United States, you will probably hear football mostly called soccer because we call American football football. I have a whole video describing why this is the case, but for simplicity's sake in this video I'm just going to say football because that's what most people do call it. A football pitch is 115 yards long and 74 yards wide. It is divided into two equal halves by the halfway line. The long side lines are called the touch lines while the ones at the ends down by the goal are the goal line. And there's a flag in each corner to separate the touch line from the goal line for reasons that we'll get into later. In front of each goal there are two rectangles called the six yard box and the 18 yard box. But the larger of the two, the 18 yard box is usually just called the box. I imagine you can figure out how large each of those are. There's a dot called the penalty mark or the spot that is 12 yards from the goal line which is where penalty kicks are taken from. During play the ball must stay in bounds, but not the player even if that player is controlling that ball. A ball on the line is considered to be in bounds, however if the ball goes over the line even if it is in the air when it does so and then curves back in bounds before it lands it is still considered out of bounds. The ball is played between two teams of 11 players each. The idea of the game is to get the ball into the other team's goal without using your hands or your arms while stopping the other team from getting the ball into your goal. Each team includes one goalie who can use his hands but only while he is inside the box. Whichever team has scored the most goals at the end of the match wins. A match is 90 minutes long and consists of two 45 minute halves. Playing in football can throw some people off especially us Americans who are used to having our sports with very rigid timing. So throughout the match the clock never stops even if the ball goes out of bounds which might lead you to ask well why wouldn't I just waste time if I'm winning then by keeping the ball out of bounds. You can do that to some degree but there's also something called additional time or stoppage time. Stoppage time exists so that if there are any delays due to the ball going out of play a lot, injuries, fouls or a streak runs onto the field additional minutes will be added on at the end of the half. Sometimes things go smoothly and they only had a minute or they don't add any time at all but typically each half will have between two and eight minutes of stoppage time. That would be the minimum amount of time that they will play but of course you can have stoppages in stoppage time and play beyond that decided length. Ultimately it's up to the referee to blow his whistle when he feels the time is up which he typically won't do if a team has the ball and is attacking. So while you may see a goal scored in the 95th minute you're not going to see any buzzer beaters like you might in hockey where you need a slow motion replay to determine if the ball has crossed the line a millisecond before the buzzer went off. The other thing that's different with many sports is that the clock counts up instead of down which may feel a little weird at first but it really does not matter in the slightest and because of additional time it actually makes things simpler. Many football leagues will determine their standings by awarding points for wins and ties so there are tied games in football but some tournaments require certain games to have a winner meaning that if the game is tied after regulation most will move to extra time. Extra time consists of two 15 minute periods which are both played fully no matter how many goals are scored. If things are still tied after 120 minutes then they will go to a shootout where both teams have five chances to score and if they are still tied after that then they will go to individual rounds back and forth until England loses. I mean until one or the other team wins. As I said both teams have 11 players including their goalie. Goalies will wear a different color kit and gloves so that he can easily be picked out. For the other 10 outfielders most stick to some kind of formation generally consisting of three or four numbers starting closest to the goalie so four three three means that you have four players in your back line three midfielders and then three attackers a four four two would have four players in the back line four in the middle and then two up front. Obviously most players will play both offense and defense but they all do have their specializations. In most matches teams are limited to just three substitutions and once you are substituted out you cannot re-enter back into the game. There are also some matches like friendlies where five subs are permitted and this can change the strategy of the game but for most players on the field if you start you are going to be playing the entire match. So we have our two sides out on the pitch. The game will start with a kickoff from the center dot. The team that kicks off gets to keep the ball. If your team starts the game with the ball the opposite team will get it to start the second half. The only other time that you are going to see a kickoff is after a team scores a goal after that then the team that has conceded the goal will then kick off to restart play. If at any point the ball goes over the touch line the team that did not touch it last gets a throw in meaning one of their players will pick up the ball and throw it in to one of his teammates on the field. He can throw it wherever he wants to but the other team is also allowed to intercept the throw in. If the ball goes out of bounds over the goal line not into the goal but over the line and out of bounds one of two things can happen. If it goes out off of the team that is trying to score in that goal the attacking team then it is a goal kick meaning that the goalie can place the ball anywhere inside the six yard box and restart play with a kick. If on the other hand it goes out of bounds off of a defending player then the attacking team will get a corner kick meaning that they get a free kick from the corner nearest to where the ball went out of bounds. Generally they will bring lots of players up into the box and try to cross it so that someone can attempt to head the ball into the net. This kind of pass where the ball is kicked from the outside the box to the players inside the box is called a cross. It doesn't necessarily have to be off of a corner kick. So this is where those corner flags come into play and if the teams are more likely to score off of a corner kick than a throw in defending players will intentionally angle a ball so that if it goes out of bounds it will go over the touch line rather than the goal line if they can help it. The flag just makes it easier to see which line it went out of bounds over but also the flag is in play so if the ball hits the flag and stays in bounds then the ball is still in bounds. Finally there are two types of free kicks which will happen when there has been a foul the indirect and the direct free kicks. Indirect free kicks must touch another player after the ball is kicked before a goal can be scored whereas a direct free kick can either be passed or just kicked directly into the net for a goal. Which type of free kick it is will be determined by the type of foul but direct free kicks are much more common especially on the attacking side of the field. Speaking of fouls we're not going to get into all the scenarios but they are largely common sense. Although some contact is permitted it's a foul to trip or push your opponent. There are a lot of times where a player will try to kick the ball away from an opponent who is dribbling it. This is called a tackle. In the ideal scenario a player would be able to knock the ball away from his opponent without making contact with him at all. Although contact is generally allowed as long as the defensive player makes contact with the ball first and then the offensive player second. If he just takes out the player without touching the ball it's probably going to be a foul especially if he is coming in from behind. Most fouls will result in a direct free kick. During a direct free kick again the player is permitted to kick the ball directly into the goal if he wants to but he won't always be able to do so depending on where the ball is at the time as a free kick will take place from the spot where he was fouled. The defense must stay back 10 yards from the ball and will typically line a few players up to form something called the wall to make it more difficult for the kicker to shoot the ball on target. To show where this 10 yard area is the referee will actually draw a line on the field with something that looks like silly string or shaving cream to show the line where the players must stand behind. If the ref feels that a foul is particularly egregious he can give the offending player a yellow card which is a caution to the player. The other possibility is a foul or conducts so bad that the player would get a red card meaning that he gets kicked out of the game and nobody can be brought in to replace him so his team would have to play the rest of the match with just 10 players. Players with a yellow card can play for the rest of the game but they have to be cautious because if they get a second yellow card this would then equal a red card and they would be dismissed from the match. Red cards usually also result in some kind of suspension for the next game as well depending on the league. Having said that most fouls will not result in a card. Either way there is one area that you definitely do not want to foul your opponent in and this is in the box. If an attacking player is fouled in the box he will receive a penalty kick meaning he can put the ball on the penalty spot and take a free shot one on one with the goalie. About 80% of the time, at least in the Premier League penalty kicks will result in goals so it's not something that you want to give up very often. A handball will also result in a free kick and likewise a handball inside the box will result in a penalty kick. When the ball touches a player's hand or arm it is not an automatic handball. It only matters if it's intentional or if the ref feels that the arm was in a position that made his body unnaturally bigger. So I saw a game recently where a defensive player was running and even though he was inside the box and the ball hit his arm the ref felt that because he was swinging his arm as most normal people do when they run there was no handball. Having said that, if you can be safe by holding your arm straight down at your sides when you're trying to block a shot then do that and you're less likely to be called for the handball. There's one final element to fouls that is something called playing the advantage. Some situations may arise where a player is fouled but has been able to make a play with the ball in such a way that it would actually hurt the offensive team to stop the play and then give them a free kick. Say if a defensive player slides into an offensive player who right before contact is made is able to pass the ball to a teammate running up the field, the offense would prefer that the player who just received the pass be allowed to keep running and going on with the play. So the referee will at this point motion by holding both of his arms straight out that there is an advantage. In the subsequent few seconds if the defense intercepts the pass or something like that then the play would be blown dead and the free kick would be awarded. If on the other hand the offense keeps moving then the play would just continue until it stops for whatever reason at which point the ref could then go back and give the yellow card or whatever if it's warranted. As with many sports football has an offside role to prevent a player from just hanging out down by the goalie and waiting for a long pass from his teammates that he can easily kick in. The difference with many other sports is that the line that attackers must stay behind is not a line on the field but it is determined by a player who will obviously be moving. This is to say that there must be two defenders between the attacking player and the goal at the moment that the ball is kicked to him. The goalie does count as a defending player so typically the easiest way to determine where the line is is to imagine a line that is parallel with the goal line that goes through that final defender which is also why the sideline referee will try and run back and forth and stay lined up with him. The key moment here is when the ball is kicked by the attacking player's teammate not when he receives the pass. So ideally he will time his run so that his teammate will kick the ball just when he is in front of the defender and then that way he will receive the pass when he is actually behind the defender already. So what have we learned? Football is a game where two teams of 11 players try to kick the ball into a goal. Only one player on each team, the goalie, can touch the ball with his hands or his arms but only when he is in the box. Some contact is allowed but not too much. A player that is fouled will usually get a free kick unless he is in the box when he gets fouled at which point he would get a penalty shot. The match is 90 minutes and ties are usually allowed but sometimes not and so there will be extra time and a shootout. Finally the offside rule prevents cherry picking. So hopefully now with this new information you can watch a match or two and what is going on out there on the pitch will make a lot more sense.