Portal:Association football

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Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called 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 opposing team. 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. The two teams compete to score goals by getting the ball into the other team's goal (between the posts, under the bar, and fully across the goal line). 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, and that only within the penalty area. The team that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner. 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.

Internationally, association football is governed by FIFA. Under FIFA, there are six continental confederations: AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC, and UEFA. National associations (e.g. the FA in England, U.S. Soccer in the United States, etc.) are responsible for managing the game in their own countries both professionally and at an amateur level, and coordinating competitions in accordance with the Laws of the Game. The most prestigious senior international competition is the FIFA World Cup. The men's World Cup is the most-viewed sporting event in the world, surpassing the Olympic Games. The most prestigious competition in European club football is the UEFA Champions League, which attracts an extensive television audience worldwide. The final of the men's Champions League is the most-watched annual sporting event in the world. (Full article...)

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Arsenal Stadium, commonly known as Highbury

Arsenal Stadium was a football stadium in Highbury, North London, which was the home ground of Arsenal Football Club between 6 September 1913 and 7 May 2006. It was popularly known as Highbury due to its location.

It was originally built in 1913 on the site of a local college's recreation ground and has been significantly redeveloped twice. The first came in the 1930s from which the still-existing Art Deco East and West Stands date; the second in the late 1980s and early 1990s following the Taylor Report, during which the terraces at both ends of the pitch were removed, making it all-seater with four stands. The resulting reduction in capacity and matchday revenue eventually led to Arsenal deciding to build the Emirates Stadium nearby, which they moved to in 2006.

Its presence also led to the local Tube station being renamed to "Arsenal" in 1932, making it the only station on the network to be named after a football club. (Full article...)

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Bobby Robson

Sir Robert William Robson CBE commonly known as Bobby Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009), was a former English football manager and former international football player. As an inside forward, his professional playing career spanned nearly 20 years during which he played for just three clubs, Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and the Vancouver Royals. He also made 20 appearances for England, scoring four goals.

He achieved success as both a club and international manager, having won league championships in the Netherlands and Portugal, earning trophies in England and Spain, and taking England to the semi-final of the 1990 World Cup. He was voted European Manager of the Year for the 1996–97 season whilst manager of Barcelona, with Ronaldo saying "without doubt he is one of the greatest in the world".

Robson was knighted in 2002, was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2003 and was the honorary president of Ipswich Town. In December 2007, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year show in recognition of "his contribution as both player and manager in a career spanning more than half a century".

He was first diagnosed with cancer in 1991 and spent much of his time in the latter years of his life campaigning and fund-raising for research into the disease, one of his most notable achievements in this field being the launch of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation in 2008.

His cancer was diagnosed as terminal in 2008 and he died of the disease on 31 July 2009. (Full article...)

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The Argentine Football Association (Spanish: Asociación del Fútbol Argentino, locally [asosjaˈsjon del ˈfuðβol aɾxenˈtino]; AFA) is the governing body of football in Argentina based in Buenos Aires. It organises the main divisions of Argentine league system (from Primera División to Torneo Regional Federal and Torneo Promocional Amateur), including domestic cups: Copa Argentina, Supercopa Argentina, Trofeo de Campeones de la Liga Profesional and the Supercopa Internacional. The body also manages all the Argentina national teams, including the Senior, U-20, U-17, U-15, Olympic and women's squads. Secondly, it also organizes the women's, children, youth, futsal, and other local leagues.

The AFA also organised all the Primera División championships from 1893 to 2016–17. From the 2017–18 season the "Superliga Argentina", an entity which was administered independently and had its own statute, took over the Primera División championships. Nevertheless, the Superliga was contractually linked with the main football body. The last championship organised by the Superliga was 2019–20, shortly after the season ended the body was dissolved. (Full article...)

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... that Ryan Roberts, a defensive end for Notre Dame, was a soccer player in high school?
... that Ecuadorian footballer Hernán Galíndez won a bicycle for beating a team featuring Lionel Messi when they were children?
... that Welsh footballer Jon Morgan went on to become a college principal after retiring?
... that goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse, who has lived in England, Africa and the US, has been chosen to play soccer for the Republic of Ireland?
... 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 after his soccer career, Steve Palacios enlisted in the United States Army and played for the United States Armed Forces soccer team?

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Wrexham F.C.

Credit: commons user Mark Barnes

Ryan Valentine scores a penalty for Wrexham F.C. in the final game of the 2006-07 season against Boston United. The losers of this game would be relegated to the Football Conference league. Wrexham won 3-1 to keep their place in Football League Two.

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He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's all right.

— George Best, commenting on David Beckham's ability in 2000

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

Image 1A Welsh women's football team pose for a photograph in 1959 (from Women's association football)
Image 2Portland Thorns traveling supporters at Seattle's Memorial Stadium. (from Women's association football)
Image 3Drawing of the first international game by artist William Ralston (from History of association football)
Image 4Cricket and Foot-Ball, one of the earliest books about association football, published by Beadle & Co. in New York in 1000 It contained the rules and laws of the game (from History of association football)
Image 5Japanese high-school girls playing football in their traditional hakama with one team wearing sashes (c. 1920) (from Women's association football)
Image 6Sheffield F.C. (here pictured in 1876) is the oldest association club still active, having been founded in 1857 (from History of association football)
Image 7FC de Rakt DA1 (2008/2009) (from Women's association football)
Image 8The Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies (from Women's association football)
Image 9"North" team of the British Ladies' Football Club, 1895 (from Women's association football)
Image 10Olympique Lyonnais vs Paris Saint-Germain. (from Women's association football)
Image 11Arsenal in 2007 of the Women's FA Cup. (from Women's association football)
Image 12Harrow School team of 1867. (from History of association football)
Image 13Representation of a football match from the book Athletics and football, 1894. The goal has no net. (from History of association football)
Image 14Megan Rapinoe speaks on equal pay in March 2021. (from Women's association football)
Image 15Florida state vs North Carolina soccer 2005. (from Women's association football)
Image 16The Royal Engineers team who reached the first FA Cup final in 1872 (from History of association football)
Image 17Players 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 18Marta of Brazil is the all-time leading scorer of the senior FIFA World Cups. (from Women's association football)
Image 19Mia Hamm (left) battles with German defender Kerstin Stegemann (from Women's association football)
Image 20Iran women's national football team maintained a higher rank internationally. (from Women's association football)
Image 21From 1866 to 1883, the laws provided for a tape between the goalposts (from Laws of the Game (association football))
Image 22Old Etonians v Blackburn Rovers match. Illustration by S.T. Dadd, 1882 (from History of association football)
Image 23Iran vs Turkey in 2010 Youth Olympics (from Women's association football)
Image 24When 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 25United States Abby Wambach plays off a corner kick against Canada.
Image 26Sam Kerr with Australia during the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup quarterfinal against Japan in Edmonton, 2015 (from Women's association football)
Image 27Striker 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 28The 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 29An 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))

Selected World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process along with hosts Germany for the finals tournament. It was the second time that Germany staged the competition and the first as a unified country along with the former East Germany with Leipzig as a host city (the other was in 1974 in West Germany), and the 10th time that the tournament was held in Europe.

Italy won the tournament, claiming their fourth World Cup title, defeating France 5–3 in a penalty shoot-out in the final after extra time had finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeated Portugal 3–1 to finish in third place. Angola, Ukraine, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Trinidad and Tobago and Togo made their first appearances in the finals. It was also the only appearance of Serbia and Montenegro under that name; they had previously appeared in 1998 as Yugoslavia. In late May 2006, immediately prior to the tournament, Montenegro voted in a referendum to become an independent nation and dissolve the loose confederacy then existing between it and Serbia; Serbia recognised the results of the referendum in early June. Due to time constraints, FIFA had Serbia and Montenegro play in the World Cup tournament as one team, marking the first instance of multiple sovereign nations competing as one team in a major football tournament since UEFA Euro 1992. (Full article...)