In a sports-mad country like Australia, it can be a bit of a drawback if you don’t keep up with the game – any game! If the “mad-keen sports spectator gene” has bypassed you, don’t despair. In just five easy lessons, presented below, you too will be able to get through the coming football season with credibility – and something that may even resemble genuine enthusiasm!
Lesson One: The Game
The first thing you need to know is that only dummies call the roundball game soccer. Everybody else calls it football. Why this is so is stunningly simple. In football only the foot is allowed to be used to kick the ball. Like most things, though, there are exceptions to the rule. A player is allowed to use his head, his chest, his knees – pretty much anything except his forearm and hands – to make contact with the ball. And the goalkeeper is allowed to use his hands to catch the ball, but only in the penalty area.
It’s starting to sound complicated isn’t it? Let’s move on.
Lesson Two: The Team
Each team is allowed 11 players on the pitch at one time. One of these players is the goalkeeper. He usually wears the number “1” on the back of his shirt. The goalkeeper’s job is to stand in front of his team’s goal and when the opposition “shoots” at the goal he has to try and stop the ball. To make his job slightly easier he’s allowed to use his hands. If the goalkeeper succeeds in stopping the ball this is called a “save”. The other 10 players on the team play in front of the goalkeeper and their job is to work together to keep the ball off the other team and, most important, to try and score goals.
Anyone who has watched even a little bit of football knows that the scoring of goals doesn’t happen very often. So if your team scores a goal, be sure to get very excited.
Lesson Three: The Rules
Football is a pretty simple game: two teams, each with 11 players, attempting to score goals in the opposition net. The rules of the game are pretty simple too – all except one.
The Offside Rule is perhaps the most unfathomable rule in sport, to the point where even the referees and linesmen in football have trouble getting it right. We won’t attempt to explain the offside rule here – partly because we don’t understand it but mostly because life’s too short. If you want to try and get to grips with it, read what the English Football Association have to say about the offside rule.
For the full rules of the game go the source – FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is the game’s world-governing body.
Lesson Four: Is David Beckham a great footballer?
Englishman David Beckham is the world’s most famous footballer. But experts don’t regard him as the greatest footballer ever – depending on whom you talk to the greatest footballer ever is Pele, George Best, Ronaldo or Bobby Charlton. As you can imagine it’s a topic that sparks a passionate debate, so you might want to read up on some of the world’s best footballers.
As for Becks, why is he so famous? Perhaps it’s the fact that he’s a very good footballer who just happens to look like a movie star. It also helps that he is married to former Spice Girl Posh Spice. Such is Beckham’s appeal that he recently left his Spanish team Real Madrid and signed a record $1.5 million-a-week five-year deal for the Los Angeles Galaxy team in the U.S.
Lesson Five: Where to watch a game in Australia?
Australia has a professional domestic competition called the A-League. The regular season runs during the Australian summer, from late August to January of the following year. The A-League consists of seven teams from Australia's major cities and regional centres, as well as one representing New Zealand. The A-League’s Brisbane team is called Queensland Roar.
Take a look at our major sports guide for details of upcoming Queensland Roar matches, plus lots more news and sporting facts.
