Lesson 1 of 5 · 3 min
Eleven against eleven, ninety minutes, one rule that outranks all the others: put the ball in the other team's goal more times than they put it in yours.
Each team puts eleven players on the pitch, and exactly one of them — the goalkeeper — is allowed to handle the ball, and only inside their own penalty area. Every other player on the pitch may use any part of their body except their hands and arms. That single exception is what shapes almost everything else about how football is played.
A match runs for two halves of forty-five minutes, with the teams swapping ends at half-time so neither side gets the same wind or slope for the whole game. The clock never stops for injuries or substitutions. Instead the referee adds that lost time on at the end of each half as stoppage time, which is why a half almost always runs past forty-five.
Each half starts with a kick-off from the centre spot, and so does play after every goal. Until the ball is kicked, every player has to be in their own half and the defending team has to stay outside the centre circle.
A goal is scored when the whole of the ball crosses the whole of the goal line between the posts and under the crossbar. Whole is the operative word in both places: a ball resting on the line, or hanging over it, has not gone in. The same all-or-nothing test decides every other boundary decision in the game, which is the subject of the next lesson.
Try it
Open the Explore page and count the players in any formation. You will always find eleven, and one of them will always be the GK sitting alone in front of goal.
Quick check
Where is a goalkeeper allowed to handle the ball?
Key takeaways