Portal:Association Football Variants/Selected article
Beach Football (Beasal) is a variant of the sport of football. The game itself is played on a beach, or some form of sand, and emphasises skill, agility and shooting at goal.
Whilst football has been played informally on beaches for many years, the introduction of beach soccer was an attempt to codify rules for the game. This was done in 1992 by the founders of Beach Soccer Worldwide, a company set up to develop the sport and responsible for the majority of its tournaments to this day. This was a major foundation for what is now known as beach soccer and what has led to the sport rapidly growing in popularity.
The irregularity of the soft-sand playing surface leads to a totally different style of play which is played in football, where players must improvise. The compact pitch, much smaller than a regular football pitch, allows players to score from anywhere on the sand. This leads to high-scoring games, with an average of sixty attempts at goal in a single game, with an average scoring rate of one goal every three or four minutes, which means around eleven goals are scored in total per game.
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Futsal is an indoor version of association football. Its name is derived from the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol sala/de salón, which can be translated as 'indoor football'. In Madrid 1985 the name fútbol de salón and all other names the game was called were changed officially and internationally into FUTSAL.
Futsal is played between two teams of five players, one of whom is the goalkeeper, and up to seven substitutes per team. Unlike some other forms of indoor football, the game is played on a hard court surface delimited by lines; walls or boards are not used. Futsal is also played with a smaller ball with less bounce than a regulation football. The rules create an emphasis on improvisation, creativity and technique as well as ball control and passing in small spaces.
Other forms of indoor football games, which are played by somewhat different rules, exist and may be referred to as indoor football, five-a-side football or indoor soccer. Many of these codes predate FIFA's adoption and endorsement of futsal rules; the American indoor soccer variant, with a regulation-sized ball, larger artificial turf-covered court, and walls off which the ball may be rebounded, has sustained professional leagues in that country for over thirty years.
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Indoor soccer or Indoor football is a game derived from association football (soccer) adapted for play in an indoor arena such as a turf-covered hockey arena or skating rink.
Indoor soccer is a somewhat common sport in the United States and Canada with both amateur and professional leagues dedicated to it. Indoor Soccer is also played outside of these two countries, though outside of North America most indoor play involves the FIFA-sanctioned game of futsal. Recently indoor soccer has become a popular sport in Mexico, being included as part of the Universiada (University National Games) and the CONADEIP (Private School Tournament), which match University school teams from all over Mexico. In Mexico, indoor soccer fields are commonly built outdoors, and the sport is known as fútbol rápido ("fast football"). In Brazil it's called "Futebol Society" or "Showbol".
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Mob football is the name given to some varieties of Medieval football, which emerged in Europe during the Middle Ages.
Mob football distinguished itself from other codes by typically having an unlimited number of players and fairly vague rules. By some accounts, any means could be used to move the ball to a goal, as long as it did not lead to manslaughter or murder. These early codes of football were forerunners of modern codes of football such as rugby football and association football.
The uncertain origins of these games have attracted explanation by myth and legend. For example, in the UK, some claim that the games started as a celebration during the 3rd century of the defeat of the Romans. The claim also exists that it was first played with the severed head of a Danish ruler of England who had been deposed.
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Paralympic football consists of adaptations of the sport of association football for athletes with a disability. These sports are typically played using International Federation of Associated Football (FIFA) rules, with modifications to the field of play, equipment, numbers of players, and other rules as required to make the game suitable for the athletes.
The two most prominent versions of Paralympic football are Football 5-a-side, for athletes with visual impairments, and Football 7-a-side, for athletes with cerebral palsy.
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Powerchair football, also known as Power soccer is a competitive team sport for people with disabilities who use power wheelchairs. The game is played in a gymnasium on a regulation basketball court. Two teams of four players use powerchairs equipped with footguards to attack, defend, and spin-kick a 13-inch football in an attempt to score goals.
Power Soccer was first played in France in the 1970s. It then spread around Europe (Belgium, Portugal, Denmark and England) before a group of Vancouver athletes began playing a variation of the game in Canada in 1982. The game then moved down the west coast to Berkeley, California in 1988 and across the Pacific to Japan. In 2005, representatives of the 9 nations met in Coimbra, Portugal and, in 2006, in Atlanta, US to form the Federation Internationale de Powerchair Football Associations (FIPFA).
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RoboCup is an international robotics competition founded in 1993. The aim is to develop autonomous robots with the intention of promoting research and education in the field of artificial intelligence. The name RoboCup is a contraction of the competition's full name, "Robot Soccer World Cup".
The official goal of the project:
- By mid-21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win the soccer game, complying with the official rule of the FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup.
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Old division football was a soccer-like game played from the 1820s to around 1890 by students at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The game was first played before the rules for soccer and rugby were standardized in England, and it continued to rely on its own local rules for some time after students learned of the newer imports. Dartmouth students published the rules of what is now called Old Division Football in 1871.
The game involved unlimited sides made up variously of the members of the two literary societies on campus: the United Fraternity versus the Social Friends ("Fraters v. Socials"); the even-numbered class years versus the odd-numbered years ("Old Division" or "Whole Division") and sometimes "New Hampshire v. the World." Every year a special match sometimes called the Usual Game of Foot Ball occurred early in the fall in which the sophomores took on the freshmen. The game was more about hazing and bragging rights, and by the late nineteenth century involved little more than a mob fight over possession of the round ball. The event became known as the Usual Football Rush and then simply the Football Rush, lasting until 1948.
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The Tennents' Sixes was an annual indoor football tournament contested each January by Scottish senior football clubs - usually from the (then) Premier Division, but occasionally with guest participants from the lower divisions of the Scottish Football League, and in one instance English club Manchester City - between 1984 and 1993. The tournament was sponsored by Tennent Caledonian Breweries and organised by the Scottish Football Association. When Tennent Caledonian Breweries withdrew their sponsorship after the 1993 event, the Sixes was discontinued.
The format used was dependent on the number of teams participating: in most cases 10 teams were involved and would be drawn into 2 groups of 5 who would play each other once. From there, the first and second-placed teams from each group would contest the knockout stages, comprised of two semi-finals and a final.
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The Federation International Football Association (FIFA) Beach Soccer World Cup is an association football (soccer) competition in beach football organised by the world football governing body FIFA for national teams.
The competition was originally organised as the Beach Football World Championship, with the first tournament taking place in 1995 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The tournament was deemed a success after being won by the host nation.
The Beach Soccer World Championship were administered by Beach Soccer Worldwide, a Spanish based organisation, with FIFA's endorsement. Prior to FIFA taking over the tournament in 2005, Brazil won nine out of ten Beach Soccer World Championship, with Portugal winning the other title.
In 2005 FIFA became the world governing body for beach soccer, and took over direct control of the Beach Soccer World Championship. FIFA Beach Soccer S.L., a FIFA subsidiary based in Barcelona, Spain, was set up to develop the game as well as administer the Beach Soccer World Cup.
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The Sheffield Rules was a code of football devised and played in the English city of Sheffield between 1857 and 1877. They were devised by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest for use by the newly founded Sheffield Football Club. The rules were subsequently adopted as the official rules of Sheffield Football Association upon its creation in 1867. They spread beyond the city boundaries to other clubs and associations in the north and midlands of England making them one of the most popular forms of football during the 1860s and 70s.
Six years after the creation of the Sheffield Rules the Football Association rules were created. These were influenced by the Sheffield game but ongoing disputes meant that the Sheffield rules continued to be used. During this time many of the elements of the rules were incorporated in to the association game. Regular games were played between Sheffield and London using both sets of rules. This led to an agreement on a single set of laws administered by the Football Association in 1877.
The rules had a major influence on how the modern game of football developed. Among other things they introduced the concept of free kicks for fouls, corners and throw-ins into the laws of the game. The abolition of the fair catch also led to their teams to be the first to head the ball. Games played under the rules are also accredited for the development of heading and the origins of the goalkeeper and forward positions. The first inter-club football match and competitive tournament were both played using Sheffield Rules.
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The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (French for International Federation of Association Football), commonly known by its acronym, FIFA (usually /fiːfə/ or /fiːfæ/), is the international governing body of association football. Its headquarters are in Zürich, Switzerland, and its current president is Sepp Blatter. FIFA is responsible for the organization and governance of football's major international tournaments, most notably the FIFA World Cup, held since 1930.
FIFA has 208 member associations, which is 16 more than the United Nations and 3 more than the International Olympic Committee, though 5 fewer than the International Association of Athletics Federations.
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thumb|right|The Cregagh Estate honoured George Best by unveiling a mural on what would have been his 60th birthday. George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional football player, best known for his years with Manchester United. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders. In 1968, his annus mirabilis, he won the European Cup with Manchester United, and was named the European Footballer of the Year. When fit, he was an automatic choice for the Northern Ireland team, but he was unable to lead them to the World Cup qualification, despite being capped 37 times and scoring nine goals.
In 1999 he was voted 11th, behind Marco van Basten, at the IFFHS European Player of the Century election and 16th, behind Lothar Matthäus, in the World Player of the Century election. Pelé named him as one of the 125 best living footballers in his 2004 FIFA 100 list and Best was named 19th, behind Gerd Müller, at the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll. In his native Northern Ireland the admiration for him is summed up by the local saying: "Maradona good; Pelé better; George Best."
He was one of the first celebrity footballers, but his extravagant lifestyle led to problems with alcoholism which curtailed his playing career and eventually led to his death in November 2005 at the age of 59. His cause of death was a kidney infection, a side-effect of the immuno-suppressive drugs he was required to take after a liver transplant. Best's lovable, cheeky image won him many fans, during his career and after, despite his public drunkenness on TV, his convictions for drunk driving and assaulting a policeman, allegations of domestic violence, and his inability to give up drinking even after the transplant. GQ named him as one of the 50 most stylish men of the past 50 years.
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Patrick Stewart Onstad (born January 13, 1968 in Vancouver) is a professional Canadian soccer goalkeeper. He is an active member of the Canadian national soccer team, and currently plays for Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer. Entering the 2008 season, his career goals against average (1.07) was the best in MLS history.
Onstad began his lengthy soccer career tending goal at the University of British Columbia, who he led to three CIAU National Championships.
After graduating, Onstad joined the Vancouver 86ers of the Canadian Soccer League in 1987. From 1988-89, he played for the Winnipeg Fury, also of the CSL. He moved to a third CSL team, the Toronto Blizzard, for 1990 and 1991. Onstad returned to the Fury in 1992, winning both the CSL Championship and the CSL Goalkeeper of the Year Award.
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Ba Game is a version of Medieval football played in Scotland, perhaps most notably in Orkney and the Scottish Borders, around Christmas and New Year.
Ba is basically mob football, or village football. Two parts of a town have to get a ball to their respective side. For instance the two sides are called the uppies or the downies depending on which part of town they were born, or otherwise owe allegiance too. The ball must be manhandled, and is very often a moving scrum. The game moves through the town, and can go up alleyways, into yards and up streets. Shops and houses board up their windows to prevent damage. Unlike traditional mob football, generally people are not hurt.
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The Confédération Africaine de Football (English: African Football Confederation), (Arabic: الاتحاد الإفريقي لكرة القدم) is the administrative and controlling body for African football. It is almost always referred to by its acronym CAF (usually /kæf/).
CAF represents the national football associations of Africa, runs continental national and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions.
CAF is one of the biggest of six continental confederations of FIFA. Although it is just three years younger than the UEFA, CAF still have a long way to go in order to improve the quality of the national and local competitions, and therefore, overcome a lot of either naturally occurring obstacles, or burdens inherited from the old age of colon colonialism such as; limited resources and either complete or partial lack of infrastructures, besides the high cost of transportation through different sides of the continent. Nevertheless, Africa produced skilled players and teams that match, and sometimes exceed Europeans, but, these isolated cases should not be self-deceptive into believing that Africa have achieved European standards in all the domains of football. CAF has been given 5 slots out of the 32 available since the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France and increased to 6 in 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
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The Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League or CMISL is a professional indoor soccer league that began full league play in January 2008. The league's president is Mel Kowalchuk. The indoor league's model is planned to be used to establish a professional soccer league outdoors in Canada as well.
As the league has become affiliated with the Professional Arena Soccer League in the United States, the Edmonton Drillers and Saskatoon Accelerators will play four soccer games and the Calgary United FC will play eight games against the PASL teams in 2009. Edmonton and Saskatoon will play two home games and two road games and Calgary will play four home games and four road games against PASL teams. In the CMISL portion of the schedule each team will play eight games. This will see Edmonton play six home games and two road games, Saskatoon play two home games and six road games and Calgary play six home games and two road games. The Winnipeg Alliance FC has decided to sit out the 2009 season.
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The Federation International Football Association (FIFA) Beach Soccer World Cup is an association football (soccer) competition in beach football organised by the world football governing body FIFA for national teams.
The competition was originally organised as the Beach Football World Championship, with the first tournament taking place in 1995 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The tournament was deemed a success after being won by the host nation. The Beach Soccer World Championships were administered by Beach Soccer Worldwide, a Spanish based organisation, with FIFA's endorsement. Prior to FIFA taking over the tournament in 2005, Brazil won nine out of ten Beach Soccer World Championship, with Portugal winning the other title.
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Earl Foreman was an American lawyer and sports executive.
Foreman practiced law in the District of Columbia. He was a minority owner of the Baltimore Bullets franchise in the National Basketball Association and also at one time owned an interest in the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League.
On August 29, 1969 Foreman, with Thomas Shaheen and Louis Diamond, purchased the Oakland Oaks professional basketball team in the American Basketball Association. The team was heavily indebted, a situation that would haunt the team until its demise in 1976 just prior to the ABA-NBA merger. Foreman and his two co-owners paid $2.6 million for the team and moved it to Washington, DC where it became the Washington Caps for the 1969-1970 ABA season. The Caps brought on Al Bianchi as head coach and finished that season with a record of 44-40, good for third place in the Western Division. The Caps lost in the first round of the 1970 ABA Playoffs to the Denver Rockets, 4 games to 3.
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Cuju (Chinese: 蹴鞠; pinyin: cùjú; literally: "kick ball", Mandarin pronunciation: [tsʰuː˥˩ tɕy˧˥]) is an ancient code of football with similarities to association football. It originated in China and was also played in Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
The game of cuju was first mentioned in the Zhan Guo Ce (under State of Qi's section) and later in the Sima Qian's Shiji (under Su Qin's biography), written during the Han Dynasty. Some historians claim that the Yellow Emperor invented the game for military training purposes, while others place its emergence during China's Warring States period (476-221 BC). In any case, it certainly existed during this period. A competitive form of cuju was used as fitness training for military cavaliers, while other forms were played for entertainment in wealthy cities like Linzi.
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Five-a-side football is a variation of association football in which each team fields five players (four outfield players and a goalkeeper), rather than the usual eleven. Other differences from football include a smaller pitch, smaller goals, and a reduced game duration. Games are often played indoors.
Additionally the ball is not allowed to go over "head height" or else the opposition is awarded an indirect free kick. The penalty area is also significantly different from regular football: it is semi-circular in shape and only the goalkeeper is allowed within it and he or she is not allowed out. There are normally no offside rules which means just one referee. No headers are allowed. Powerleague and Goals Soccer Centres are the two big operators of 5 a side football in the UK. Five-a-side football leagues can be played on astroturfs across the United Kingdom. Another rule in five-a-side football is that metal studded boots or blades cannot be worn, as it damages the playing surface.
Five-a-side is commonly played informally, and the rules are therefore flexible and are sometimes decided immediately before play begins; this is in contrast to futsal where official laws are published by FIFA.
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Artificial turf, or synthetic turf, is a man-made surface manufactured from synthetic materials, made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well.
David Chaney -- who moved to Raleigh in 1960 and later served as dean of the North Carolina State University College of Textiles -- headed the team of RTP researchers who created the famous artificial turf. That accomplishment led Sports Illustrated to declare Chaney as the man "responsible for indoor major league baseball and millions of welcome mats." Artificial turf first came to prominence in 1965, when AstroTurf was installed in the newly-built Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The use of AstroTurf and similar surfaces became widespread in the 1970s and was installed in both indoor and outdoor stadiums used for baseball and gridiron football in the United States and Canada. Maintaining a grass playing surface indoors, while technically possible, is prohibitively expensive, while teams who chose to play on artificial surfaces outdoors did so because of the reduced maintenance cost, especially in colder climates with urban multi-purpose "cookie cutter" stadiums such as Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium, Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium and Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium.
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The term street football encompasses a number of informal varieties of association football (soccer). These informal games do not necessarily utilise the requirements of a formal game of football, such as a large field, field markings, goal apparatus and corner flags, eleven players per team (with a minimum of seven per team), or match officials (referee and assistant referees).
Often the most basic of set-ups will involve just a ball with a wall or fence used as a goal, or items such as clothing being used for goalposts (hence the phrase "jumpers for goalposts"). The ease of playing these informal games means that they are popular all over the world.
Street football can be divided into three varieties: minor adaptations of the association football rules, games based on scoring goals and games which are not.
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