The FIFA’s men’s world ranking aims at creating a dynamic hierarchy of each country’s national team with the purpose of knowing in a rollover period (in general, the ranking is recalculated on a monthly basis) which teams are stronger. Contrary to UEFA’s, this ranking does not bind FIFA to seed clubs in a World Cup draw…
Soccer’s Pitch Lines and Marks – The Centre Circle
In a previous post we have started depicting the characteristics of soccer’s pitch lines and marks and provided information about the Penalty Arc’s purpose. Today we focus our attention on the Centre Circle. As you may all know this circumference has the legal purpose of keeping all the players within a reasonable distance (outside the circle) from the…
Soccer Pitch Lines and Marks – What are their names and purpose?
A soccer pitch has several lines and marks that have a specific purpose within the normal course of a match. The longer lines of the pitch’s rectangle are called ‘Touchlines’ and the shorter ones ‘Goal Lines’ (line that horizontally unites each corner flag) in the center of which ‘Goals’ are placed (each ‘Goal’ must have two ‘Posts’…
Soccer Offside Rules – To which part of the striker’s body has the liner to watch out?
Accordingly to International Board Laws of the Game (Law 11 – Offside), the general rule for a player to be considered in an offside position is when he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent. There are situations in which this thumb rule is not applied (for example, as…
Soccer Goal Kicks – Is it possible to score from one?
Yes, it possible to score a goal from a goal kick but only in the opponent team’s goal. What you probably do not know is that if a player by accident or on purpose decides to kick the ball directly inside its own goal the referee will disallow the goal and, following the international Board…
Soccer Disciplinary Actions – Is it possible to keep all players in the event of a sent off?
Yes it is. If the player or players is/are sent off before the game starts, for instance while teams and referees warm up in the pitch. In this case, a player who has been sent off before the kick-off may be replaced only by one of the named substitutes. A named substitute who has been sent…
Soccer Rules – Goal Kicks and Offside
Following our last post on offside rules we said that there are three situations in which a player may receive the ball from a teammate’s kick and no offside could be signaled even if he is the nearest player to the opponent’s team goal and is not standing in its team half pitch. We then identified two of them.…
Soccer – Offside Rules in Detail
There are only three cases in which a player that has no opponents in front of him can receive the ball from a teammate’s kick and score without seeing the goal denied by offside. One is the situation where such player receives the ball while being positioned in its half of the pitch. The other…