The 7 Laws of football & the infamous offside rule: Easy Peasy!

Clueless on the rules? Does it aggravate you when, after the millionth try, your loved ones still don't understand the off-side rule? Do you get frustrated trying to understand the basic rules of futbol? Hopefully this will help!

The laws of football:

Law 1: A match is played between two teams, with no more than 11 players (each) on the field at one time

Law 2: A match can not start if a team has less than 7 players.

Law 3: Matches normally consist of two 45 minute halves with a 15 minute half-time which can only be changed by the referee. Referees can add time to the clock (O/T)

Law 4: The Ball: The ball is out of play when:

- It has wholly crossed the goal line or touchline
- Play has been stopped by the referee.

The ball is in play at all other times:
-It rebounds off a goalpost, crossbar or corner flag and stays on the field.
-When it hits a referee or assistant referee when they are on the field.

Laws 5: Throw Ins, Goal Kicks, and Corner Kicks

When the ball goes out of play over the touchline, a throw-in will be taken by a player from the team who did not touch the ball last. When the whole of the ball goes over the goal line, a goal kick or corner is awarded, depending on which team touched the ball last. If the defending team touched it, a corner is awarded to the opposition. If the attacking team had the last touch, a goal kick is awarded.

Law 6: Free kicks are either direct or indirect, and the ball must be stationary when the kick is taken. The kicker must not touch the ball again until it has touched another player.

Law 7: The Offside

The offside rule was created in order to stop lazy players from simply waiting at the goal area for an easy goal. Cheeky buggers

- In short, if a flag is up, it's offside ;)

As per FIFA:
It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.
A player is in an offside position if:
•he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent
A player is not in an offside position if:
•he is in his own half of the field of play or
•he is level with the second-last opponent or
•he is level with the last two opponents

WHICH MEANS....
- There must be 2 opposition players between you and the goal at the moment you touch the ball or when the ball is played by one of your teammates
-Offside only applies at the time that the ball was last touched by an attacking player, not after the touch. Once a teammate passes a ball to the attacking player, the attacker can legally sprint past the last defender to receive the pass.
-you can be in an offside position, but as long as you don't participate in the play, you will not be called offside

Now for those of you who are like me, and understand everything better through shopping metaphors, here's a fun explanation I recently heard:

There’s this one pair of Christian Louboutin Very Prive at 80% off (that’s the goal line) but in front of you, stand other shoppers who are in the way of you & those gorgeous Loubies (they're the opposing team). Behind you is your best friend who is holding your credit card (that’s the ball). If you start running towards the shoes (the goal line) and your friend throws the credit card (the ball) to you after you’ve manage to barge past the last two shoppers, you’re off-side and lose the shoes

Again, you must always remember that until the card has "actually been thrown towards you", it would be plain wrong for you to be in front of the other shoppers and you would be OFFSIDE.

ONside

OFFside

Thanks to extremesoccerlover & watchandwhistle for the visuals