association football

Also known as football, soccer, footie, footy, futbol, futebol, association soccer, foot ball

sport that is practiced between two teams of eleven players

OverviewAI-generated

Association football is a type of sport, team sport, Olympic sport, and spectator sport. It is a ball game that originated in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1863. The sport is regulated by FIFA and the International Football Association Board. It uses an association football kit, association football ball, association football pitch, and association football goal.

The game requires a minimum of seven players and a maximum of twenty-two. It is practiced by association football players, association football coaches, football scouts, and association football teams. The subject is also known by the short names football and soccer. Its Unicode character is ⚽. It is described by sources including the Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia and the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.

Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Within Vinony's link graph, association football is referenced by 274,066 other articles, and connects out to free kick, foul and list of ball games.

It is catalogued under topics including 19th century in England, Association football and Association football terminology.

Its subject is documented across 248 Wikipedia language editions.

Research

7,538 papers

Neurodegenerative Disease and Association Football (NDAF): Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Howarth NE, Ji C, Batten J et al.DOI: 10.3390/ijerph22050806
The association between playing professional American football and longevity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Warren JR, Rumore GDOI: 10.1073/pnas.2308867120
Talent Identification and Development in Male Football: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2018Sarmento H, Anguera MT, Pereira A et al.DOI: 10.1007/s40279-017-0851-7
Compliance With the National Athletic Trainers' Association Inter-Association Task Force Preseason Heat-Acclimatization Guidelines in High School Football.Journal of athletic training · 2019Kerr ZY, Register-Mihalik JK, Pryor RR et al.DOI: 10.4085/1062-6050-373-18
Prevention strategies and modifiable risk factors for sport-related concussions and head impacts: a systematic review and meta-analysis.British journal of sports medicine · 2023Eliason PH, Galarneau JM, Kolstad AT et al.DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2022-106656
National Athletic Trainers' Association Position Statement: Reducing Intentional Head-First Contact Behavior in American Football Players.Journal of athletic training · 2022Swartz EE, Register-Mihalik JK, Broglio SP et al.DOI: 10.4085/1062-6050-0062.21
Design Considerations in the National Football League and National Football League Players Association Prescription Drug Monitoring Program: An Introduction and Overview.ReviewCurrent sports medicine reports · 2021Hill KP, Wu A, Solomon GS et al.DOI: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000910
Association between match physical activity and neuromuscular characteristics in youth football.The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness · 2023Francini L, Castagna C, Bosio A et al.DOI: 10.23736/S0022-4707.22.13537-1

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Instance of: hobby
Subclass of: ball game
Named after: kick
Industry: sports industry
Country of origin: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Image: Football in Bloomington, Indiana, 1995.jpg

Show 18 more facts

Commons category: Association football
topic's main category: Category:Association football
minimum number of players: 7
maximum number of players: 22
Commons gallery: Association football
OpenStreetMap tag: sport=soccer
Unicode character: ⚽
uses: association football boots
regulated by: International Football Association Board
history of topic: history of association football
authority: FIFA
topic's main Wikimedia portal: Portal:Association football
short name: soccer
maintained by WikiProject: WikiProject Football
different from: Football
time of discovery or invention: 1863-00-00
main regulatory text: Laws of the Game
related category: Category:Association football magazines

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Association football, more commonly known as just football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a ball around a pitch.

The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposing team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opponent. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is the world's most popular sport.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “association football” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.