Regardless of being a sport with roots reaching out to medieval and even traditional times, football wasn't truly played under a group of stern rules till 1863. On twenty-six October, 1863 many beginner and semi-professional clubs from Britain gathered up in London and formed up the Soccer organization and created a "constitution" for the game, including a group of homogenized soccer. Obviously the "Laws of football" as they were called back then were just a group of basic football rules and they did not cover all sides of the game. The main points covered by the Soccer organization were about violence on the pitch, as often the tense clashes in no-rules matches lead to bloody fistfights between the groups.
Since that time, football rules consistently developed and commenced covering more of the game's guidelines and also adapting football to the age it was played in. An easy example of this would be the offside rules which were introduced later in the game, when matches became more tactical. Without the offside rule, assailants would frequently have a hibernating role in the team, simply staying up front and waiting for the ball to come, therefore with the new rule, they were made to work as much as the other players on the pitch. Let's have a look at some of the official football rules of today and give them a little reason for why they're there and how they affect the game :
Football field dimensions - since not all football pitches could share the precise same size, FIFA decided a tiny length and width size threshold for a pitch to be playable.
So that the minimum length of a soccer field must be of a hundred yards (ninety meters), while the maximum length must be 130 yards (120 meters). A bigger size difference was permitted for the width, which can be as tiny as fifty yards (forty five meters) and as large as one hundred yards (90 meters). You may have spotted that the minimum length synchronizes with the maximum width! Though weird indeed, football could basically be played on a square field, however for entertainment's sake nobody built that sort of pitch yet (thankfully).
Number of players - The official football rules book states that each team can enter the field with 11 players (one being the goalkeeper). The amount of substitutes depends on the competition the match is played in, but in official FIFA matches the quantity of substitutes can range between none to seven, with three substitutions suitable for each one of the 2 groups. However, in friendly matches, it's regularly the case that both groups agree on a set number of substitutions or go no holds barred and permits each bench player to get in the game at some particular point, replacing one of the first team members.
Ball in / out play football rules - The ball is in play whenever the referee doesn't arbitrate whistling a game stop and whenever it stays within the play area. If the ball crosses the goal line or touch line by at least half its rim, then it is going out of play and a goal kick / corner or chuck in is given to one of the groups (the opposition of the team that last touched the ball). If a ball hits the referee, the goal post, the corner flag or any other object on the pitch, the game remains in play.
Fouls - Fouls are one of the most tricky football rules these days, since they can be simply misjudge or translated by the referee, which regularly causes bitching off and on the pitch.
In theory, a nasty is whistled and a direct or indirect kick is given when a player trips, kicks, pushes, punches, charges or holds an adversary. in the fast speed of the game, it's regularly hard for the referee to work out if a tackle touches the feet of the assailant or the ball. It's considered a bad even if the protecting player doesn't touch the assailant at all, but has a perilous intervention like a high kick.
Goals - Last but not least, the essence of football rules and the object of the game itself, the goal. To score a goal, the opposing team must pass the ball outside the other team's goal line. The assailant can kick the ball, head the ball or push it in with any other body part aside from the hand (in which case it is considered handball).
Not all shots that finish up in the net are goals though , as a goal can be canned if it was scored after the assailant broke one of the other football rules , for example fouling a defender or the goalkeeper, using his hand to govern the ball, being offside or scoring immediately from an indirect penalty kick.