The How Football Works Section Overview

A ball loops over a backpedalling defender, clips an outstretched arm, and drops to a striker who slots it home while the crowd screams for a penalty the official never gives. That moment is not chaos. It is a system, and every part of it is governed by a numbered law, a competition regulation, a convention that hardened over decades into something close to a rule. The How football works section is the map of that system.

It tells you why the goal stood, why the flag went up, why the match lasted 97 minutes instead of 90. Its contract is simple: define each rule precisely, show it in a real match situation, and separate the written law from the common convention that surrounds it. The IFAB Laws of the Game are the foundation. Every guide here starts from them and draws a clean line between what the book says and what actually happens on the pitch. Route yourself by what you are trying to do: understand a match as it unfolds, check a specific rule before an argument, or clarify a position you keep hearing commentators misstate. Each linked guide is built around the question it answers, not the title it carries.

• Governing law: The 17 Laws of the Game, maintained annually by IFAB
• Distinction: Written law vs common convention; IFAB vs competition regulations
• Match structure: Two 45-minute halves, added time, restarts, referee discretion
• Primary source: IFAB Laws of the Game, not punditry or social media

Football rules are the 17 Laws of the Game, a single document revised each year by the International Football Association Board. IFAB is a separate body from FIFA, a distinction that surprises even seasoned fans. FIFA holds four of the eight IFAB votes. The four British associations hold the other four, one each. No law changes without a three-quarters majority.

Every law has a number, a title, and a body of text that the match official interprets on the pitch with the help of the officiating team. Law 11 defines offside position and offside offence as two separate things. Law 12 separates a direct free kick from an indirect free kick. Law 5 grants the referee discretion to apply the laws within the spirit of the game, which is where common convention begins to separate from the written law. A handball that looks deliberate on slow motion may not be a handball offence under the current IFAB wording, and that gap is exactly what this section exists to explain.

The single biggest mistake newcomers make is reading the laws in isolation. A red card in the Premier League operates under the same Law 12 as a red card in the Copa Libertadores, but the competition regulations around suspension, appeal and review differ sharply. Treat the laws as the fixed ground and competition regulations as the layer on top.

The Clock And Added Time

A football match is two halves of 45 minutes. The clock runs continuously. Added time, announced by the fourth official at the end of each half, compensates for substitutions, injuries, goal celebrations and time-wasting. The referee decides the minimum added time. The final whistle blows at the referee's discretion, not the instant that number hits zero.

Half-Time, Extra Time And Penalties

Half-time lasts a maximum of 15 minutes in most competition regulations. The second half restarts with a kick-off, same as the first. Extra time, used in knockout matches, consists of two 15-minute periods with a short break in between. The away goals rule, once a staple of UEFA knockout ties, was abolished from the 2021-22 season onward. A penalty shootout follows extra time if the match is still tied, governed by a specific procedure in Law 10 that includes the coin toss, the order of kicks and the rules for sudden death after five kicks each.

Abandoned Matches

A match can be abandoned by the referee for weather, spectator encroachment or player safety. Abandoned matches are replayed or resumed under the competition's specific regulations, not under a universal rule. Pitch invasion abandonment, for example, is a security failure, not a football law event, and the outcome depends on the competition body's disciplinary code.

The 17 Laws At A Glance

The laws are numbered one through seventeen, and the numbering is stable even when the content shifts. Law 1 covers the field of play, including goal-line technology and the dimensions of the pitch. Law 2 covers the ball, including the pressure and material specifications. Law 3 covers the players, including the number of substitutes permitted, which is a competition regulation detail that IFAB sets a maximum for but does not fix. Law 4 covers player equipment. Law 5 covers the referee. Law 6 covers the other match officials: assistant referees, fourth official, VAR and assistant VAR where deployed.

From Kick-Off To The Final Whistle

Laws 7 and 8 cover match duration and the start and restart of play. Law 9 covers the ball in and out of play. Law 10 determines the outcome of a match: goal scored, extra time, penalty shootout. Law 11 is offside, the most amended and most argued law in the book. Law 12 is fouls and misconduct, which is where direct free kick, indirect free kick and red card offences live. Laws 13 through 17 cover free kicks, the penalty kick, the throw-in, the goal kick and the corner kick in that order.

How The Rules Change

The IFAB law-change process is slow by design. A proposal can come from FIFA, from any of the four British associations, or from the IFAB technical sub-committees. Trials, such as the sin-bin protocol tested in lower-league and grassroots football, are authorised by IFAB and assessed over a fixed period before any law change is voted on. The handball law's interpretive boundary shifts almost annually, but the framework distinguishing deliberate handball from accidental contact is durable.

Scoring

A goal is scored when the whole of the ball crosses the whole of the goal line between the posts and under the crossbar, provided no offence has been committed by the attacking team. Goal-line technology confirms this to the referee's watch within one second. A goal cannot be scored directly from an indirect free kick, a throw-in or a dropped ball. A goal can be scored directly from a goal kick and from a corner kick.

Offside Position And Offside Offence

The most important distinction in football law is between offside position and offside offence. A player in an offside position has not committed an offence until they become involved in active play. Active play means interfering with play, interfering with an opponent or gaining an advantage from being in that position. The core principle has been stable since 2005, though VAR interpretation has shifted the margin of what constitutes interfering with an opponent.

Restarts

A restart follows every stoppage. The type of restart depends on why play stopped. A direct free kick is awarded for a foul that involved contact, such as a tackle or a push. An indirect free kick is awarded for a technical offence, such as offside or a back-pass handled by the goalkeeper. The referee's raised arm signals an indirect free kick. A goal cannot be scored directly from it. A penalty kick is a direct free kick taken from the penalty mark with only the goalkeeper to beat.

Cards And Misconduct

A yellow card is a caution. A red card is a sending-off. Two yellow cards in the same match equal a red. A red card can also be shown directly for serious foul play, violent conduct, spitting, denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by handball or by a foul, or using offensive or insulting language. A sent-off player must leave the field of play and its immediate surroundings, including the technical area.

Feature	Direct Free Kick	Indirect Free Kick
Offence type	Contact fouls: kick, trip, push, hold, charge, tackle	Technical offences: offside, back-pass, obstruction without contact, dangerous play
Referee signal	No specific signal required	Arm raised vertically above the head and held until the kick is taken and the ball touches another player or goes out of play
Goal scored directly	Yes, a goal can be scored directly from a direct free kick	No, a goal cannot be scored directly; the ball must touch another player before entering the goal
Law reference	Law 12, fouls and misconduct	Law 12, technical offences, and Law 13, free kicks
Common convention	Often taken quickly before the wall is set	Almost always taken after the referee's signal and with the attacking team waiting for the raised arm to drop

Added Time

Added time is the minimum additional time, not the exact amount. The fourth official displays a number. The referee adds further time if a substitution, injury or time-wasting occurs during added time itself. This is referee discretion, not a fixed extension. A match that sees a goal scored in the third minute of five added minutes may run to 98 or 99 minutes before the final whistle, legitimately.

Competition Regulations

Competition regulations sit on top of the Laws of the Game and cover everything the laws do not: squad size, substitution limits, tie-breaking procedures, disciplinary accumulation and suspensions. A red card in the Premier League triggers a specific ban length depending on the offence category, determined by the FA's disciplinary code, not by IFAB. The Champions League access list is determined by the UEFA coefficient, a five-season rolling average of club results, which is a competition regulation concept, not a law.

Written Law Versus Common Convention

The written law says a player in an offside position is only penalised when involved in active play. Common convention among fans and commentators often treats the flag itself as the offence. The written law requires the referee to consider whether a handball was deliberate or whether the arm was in an unnatural position. Common convention treats any ball striking an arm in the box as a penalty. Separating these is the core work of this section. Every guide here starts from the IFAB text and works outward to the match situation.