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⚽ Sports and games ⚽ Ball games

Football

Football

📖 In short

Football is the most popular sport in the world! Children play it in streets and squares, and professionals in big stadiums. There are two teams of eleven players, and each team tries to get the ball into the other's goal with their feet or head.

🤩 Did you know?

  • The first World Cup was held in 1930.
  • Geoff Hurst scored three goals in the 1966 World Cup final.
  • Millions of people play football in more than 200 countries.
  • Brazil has won the World Cup more than any other team, five times.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Simple rules

Players may not touch the ball with their hands, except the goalkeeper in their area. The team that scores more goals in 90 minutes wins. The referee watches the match with a whistle.

🔍 Player positions

A team has a goalkeeper who guards the goal, defenders who stop the other team advancing, midfielders who build the play, and forwards who score goals.

💡 The World Cup

Football's most important tournament is the World Cup, held every four years and watched by billions of people. Qatar hosted it in 2022, the first Arab country to do so.

🎯 Arab stars

Many Arab players have played for the world's biggest clubs, and Arab teams have shone at the World Cup, like Morocco, which reached the semi-final in 2022.

🧩 Test yourself

1 How many players are on a football team?

2 Who is allowed to touch the ball with their hands?

3 Millions of people play football in more than ?? countries.

4 Which picture shows “Football”?

⚽ Discover more

📷 Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons