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 each, who primarily 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.

The game of 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 get the ball into the other team's goal (between the posts, under the bar, and across the goal line), thereby scoring a goal. When the ball is in play, the players mainly use their feet, but may use any other part of their body, except for their hands or arms, to control, strike, or pass the ball. Only the goalkeepers may use their hands and arms, and only then within the penalty area. The team that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner. There are situations where a goal can be disallowed, such as an offside call or a foul in the build-up to the goal. Depending on the format of the competition, an equal number of goals scored may result in a draw being declared, or the game goes 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. Of these confederations, CONMEBOL is the oldest one, being founded in 1916. National associations (e.g. The FA or JFA) 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 senior and prestigious international competitions are the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup. The men's World Cup is the most-viewed sporting event in the world, surpassing the Olympic Games. The two most prestigious competitions in European club football are the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Women's Champions League, which attract an extensive television audience throughout the world. Since 2009, the final of the men's tournament has been the most-watched annual sporting event in the world. (Full article...)

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Sheffield Wednesday lift the 2005 League One Playoff Trophy

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional football team based in Sheffield, England who currently compete in the Football League of England in The Championship division. Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world.

Nicknamed the "Owls", the club has won four league titles, three FA Cups and one League Cup, but their League Cup triumph in 1991 is their only major trophy since World War II. They did reach both domestic cup finals in 1993, but lost 2-1 to Arsenal each time.

Their main rivals are neighbours Sheffield United. Matches between Wednesday and United are nicknamed Steel City derbies and are usually the highlight of the season for both sets of fans. Famous matches include The Boxing Day Massacre, a Football League Third Division match which took place at Hillsborough on 26 December 1979. A record Third Division crowd of 49,309 fans watched Wednesday beat United 4-0 and the game has become part of Sheffield Wednesday folklore, even inspiring a song. (Full article...)

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Maribel Guadalupe Domínguez Castelán (born 18 November 1978) is a Mexican footballer who currently plays for the Chicago Red Stars in the National Women's Soccer League and is captain and leading scorer of the Mexico women's national football team. She is known internationally as "Marigol" for her record of 46 goals scored in 49 matches for the Mexican national team.

Domínguez has played professionally in the United States, Spain, and Mexico. In 2003, she was the first Mexican-born player to sign for a team in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the top division in the United States at the time. As a forward for the Atlanta Beat, she was a leading scorer in the league during its final year of operation. In 2004, she made international headlines when she signed for a men's team in Mexico but was denied by FIFA. From 2005 to 2013, she played professionally for several teams around the world including FC Barcelona, UE L'Estartit, San Diego Sunwaves, Chicago Red Stars, and UAEH Panteras.

As of 2013, Domínguez has played the most games (109) and scored the most goals (75) in the history of the women's national team. In 2004, she was ranked in FIFA's top 25 women players in the world. She holds the distinction of being the only Mexican player to have appeared and scored for the Mexican team in Olympic Games, World Cup, CONCACAF Gold Cup and Pan American Games.

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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, Copa de la Liga Profesional, 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 Ecuadorian footballer Hernán Galíndez won a bicycle for beating a team featuring Lionel Messi when they were children?
... that after his soccer career, Steve Palacios enlisted in the United States Army and played for the United States Armed Forces soccer team?
... 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 Welsh footballer Jon Morgan went on to become a college principal after retiring?
... that Ryan Roberts, a defensive end for Notre Dame, was a soccer player in high school?
... that Carlton Town F.C., now competing at the eighth tier of the English football pyramid, was once denied promotion by a hat-trick scored by future England international Jamie Vardy?

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Chelsea F.C.

Credit: Flickr user Ray Boosen

Arjen Robben and Petr Čech of Chelsea F.C. parade with the Premier League trophy at the end of the 2005-06 season. This was the second season in a row that Chelsea had won the title.

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

Image 1Old Etonians v Blackburn Rovers match. Illustration by S.T. Dadd, 1882 (from History of association football)
Image 2Marta wearing the Brazil number 10 during a match in the 2007 Pan American Games (from Women's association football)
Image 3"North" team of the British Ladies' Football Club, 1895 (from Women's association football)
Image 4From 1866 to 1883, the laws provided for a tape between the goalposts (from Laws of the Game (association football))
Image 5Representation of a football match from the book Athletics and football, 1894 (from History of association football)
Image 6Iran vs Turkey in 2010 Youth Olympics (from Women's association football)
Image 7Chelsea, a women's football club of London, England in 2020. (from Women's association football)
Image 8Harrow School team of 1867. (from History of association football)
Image 9Drawing of the first international game by artist William Ralston (from History of association football)
Image 10A Welsh women's football team pose for a photograph in 1959 (from Women's association football)
Image 11Mia Hamm (left) battles with German defender Kerstin Stegemann (from Women's association football)
Image 12When 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 13Japanese high-school girls playing football in their traditional hakama with one team wearing sashes (c. 1920) (from Women's association football)
Image 14An 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))
Image 15Sheffield F.C. (here pictured in 1876) is the oldest association club still active, having been founded in 1857 (from History of association football)
Image 16Yuki Ogimi (17) scores for Japan against the United States off a pass from Homare Sawa (10) as Kelley O'Hara (5) defends and Hope Solo (1) attempts to save. (from Women's association football)
Image 17FC de Rakt DA1 (2008/2009) (from Women's association football)
Image 18The Royal Engineers team who reached the first FA Cup final in 1872 (from History of association football)
Image 19Abby Wambach and England captain Steph Houghton shake hands before kick off on February 13, 2015 (from Women's 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...)

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