Football Basics: The Rules of the Game Explained

Football is beautifully simple at its heart. Two teams each try to move a ball into the other team's goal, a netted frame at each end of the pitch. Putting the ball fully over the goal line, between the posts and under the bar, scores a goal. The team with more goals when time runs out wins. If both teams have scored the same number, the match is a draw, though some knockout competitions add extra time and a penalty shootout to force a winner.

The one big catch: outfield players may not use their hands or arms. They move the ball with their feet, thighs, chest and head. Only one player per side, the goalkeeper, may handle the ball, and only inside their own penalty area. That single restriction is what gives football its whole character.

A match is played by two teams of eleven players each on a large rectangular grass (or artificial turf) pitch, with a goal centred on each end line. Of the eleven, one is the goalkeeper; the other ten are outfield players, usually grouped into defenders, midfielders and forwards (attackers), though players roam and swap roles constantly.

• Goalkeeper. Guards the goal and is the only player allowed to handle the ball, within their own penalty area.
• Defenders. Line up nearest their own goal to stop the opposition scoring.
• Midfielders. Link defence and attack, doing much of the running and passing.
• Forwards. Play furthest up the pitch with the main job of scoring goals.

A referee, usually with assistants on the touchlines, enforces the laws and keeps time. Teams may make a limited number of substitutions, swapping a player on the pitch for one on the bench.

A standard match is 90 minutes, split into two halves of 45 minutes with a half-time interval of around 15 minutes in between. The clock runs continuously and doesn't stop for the ball going out of play, so at the end of each half the referee adds stoppage time (also called added or injury time) to make up for longer breaks in play, such as injuries or substitutions.

In league football, that's usually it: if the scores are level, the game ends in a draw. In knockout competitions a tie may go to extra time (two further 15-minute halves) and, if still level, a penalty shootout to decide the winner.

Here are the restarts and laws you'll hear about most often. Understanding these is enough to follow almost any match.

Eleven players are not eleven versions of the same job. Formations change constantly and modern football blurs the old boundaries, but four broad roles still describe almost every player on a pitch.

The goalkeeper is the only player allowed to handle the ball, and only inside their own penalty area. Beyond shot-stopping, a modern keeper is expected to organise the defenders in front of them, come out to claim crosses, and start attacks with their distribution.

Defenders occupy the back line. Centre-backs, usually two of them, defend the middle of the goal and deal with the opposition's strikers; full-backs on either side cover the wide areas and, in almost every modern team, push forward to support the attack when their side has the ball.

Midfielders are the link between defence and attack, and the most varied group on the pitch. A holding midfielder sits in front of the defence and breaks up play; a central midfielder covers ground in both directions; an attacking midfielder plays close to the strikers and creates chances; a winger stays wide to stretch the opposition and deliver crosses.

Forwards are there to score. A central striker plays closest to the goal and lives off half-chances inside the box, while a second striker or a false nine drops deeper to link with midfield and pull defenders out of position.

Why formations are written as numbers

A formation like 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 counts outfield players from the back: four defenders, then four midfielders, then two forwards. The goalkeeper is never counted, which is why the numbers always add up to ten rather than eleven. The shape is a starting arrangement rather than a set of fixed positions, and any team will change it during a match depending on whether they are chasing a goal or protecting a lead.

Football uses two quite different structures, and most major tournaments combine them.

A league is a table. Every team plays every other team, usually twice so that each side gets one home and one away fixture, and points are awarded for results: three for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat. Whoever has the most points at the end of the season is champion, with no final and no playoff. When teams finish level on points, the tie is normally broken by goal difference, which is goals scored minus goals conceded.

A knockout is a bracket. Lose and you are out, which is why knockout matches cannot end level. If the scores are tied after 90 minutes, the match goes to extra time, two further periods of 15 minutes. If it is still level after that, it is decided by a penalty shootout: five penalties each, taken alternately, and if they finish tied it goes to sudden death, one kick each until one team scores and the other misses.

Large tournaments such as the World Cup use both. Teams are drawn into small groups and play a mini-league to decide who advances, then the qualifiers enter a straight knockout bracket to the final. It is a deliberate design: the group stage rewards consistency, and the knockout rewards nerve.

A set piece is any restart from a stationary ball, and they matter far more than their share of the match suggests. A significant proportion of goals at every level come from them, because they are the only moments when an attacking team gets to arrange itself deliberately while the ball is not moving.

A penalty is the most valuable of all: one striker, one keeper, twelve yards, no defenders. The keeper cannot move off their line until the ball is struck, which is why penalties are converted far more often than they are missed and why the pressure sits almost entirely on the taker.

A direct free kick can be scored straight from the kick, which is why the defending team forms a wall of players at least ten yards away to block the direct line to goal. That wall is the whole reason curled free kicks exist: bending the ball is the only way to travel around a wall rather than through it. An indirect free kick must touch a second player before it counts, so it is played as a pass rather than a shot.

A corner is awarded when a defending player puts the ball out over their own goal line. It is taken from the corner arc and almost always delivered into the penalty area for someone to head, which is why corners are the one moment you will see a team's tallest defenders standing in the opposition box.

Two of our games are built entirely around set pieces. Penalty Shootout puts you on the spot, and Free Kick Master gives you a wall to bend the ball around, which is the clearest way to understand why professionals aim so far from the post they are actually targeting.

The referee keeps order with two coloured cards. A yellow card is a caution, a formal warning for a bad foul, persistent fouling or unsporting behaviour. A red card is a sending-off: the player must leave the pitch immediately and cannot be replaced, so their team plays on with ten. Two yellow cards in the same match add up to a red, so a booked player has to tread carefully for the rest of the game.

• Hat-trick: three goals scored by the same player in one match.
• Clean sheet: a game in which a team (and its goalkeeper) concedes no goals.
• Added time / stoppage time: minutes added at the end of a half to make up for stoppages.
• Assist: the pass that directly sets up a goal.
• Nutmeg: playing the ball through an opponent's legs.
• Derby: a match between two local rival teams.
• Extra time: an additional 30 minutes played when a knockout match is level after 90.
• Own goal: a goal accidentally scored by a player into their own net.

That's the foundation. Football has finer details, and the full Laws of the Game are maintained internationally and run to many pages, but with the above you can follow a match, understand the commentary, and know exactly what's happening in every one of our games.

Think it's sunk in? The Football Quiz draws its questions from exactly these topics: the laws, the terms, plus club and World Cup history. And if you want to feel the rules in action, our game guides show how penalties, free kicks and goalkeeping actually work.