Rule guide
Football rules explained
Football has a long set of rules, known as the Laws of the Game, but most of the game can be understood through a small number of clear ideas. This guide walks through the rules that come up in almost every match.
Rules
Football rules
Learn the rules of football explained in clear, everyday language. This section sets out what happens during a match and the thinking behind the decisions a referee makes.
What you will find in this section
This section explains the main rules of football in plain English.
Football has a detailed set of laws, but most of the game can be understood through a few core ideas — goals, fouls, restarts, offside, and the decisions referees make when players break the rules.
The rules of football are formally set out as 17 Laws of the Game, which are reviewed and updated regularly. The pages in this section explain the main parts of those Laws in plain English, with the focus on what spectators and new players most often need to understand.
Start here
These are the best pages to read first if you want to understand how football matches are controlled.
Detailed guides to specific rules
A selection of the most-searched rules in the section, covering how a match is run, the offences and decisions that shape it, and the main restarts. They are good places to go once the overviews above make sense.
Stoppage time and extra time
Two different ways of adding minutes to a match that are often confused. Stoppage time makes up for time lost during normal play, while extra time is the extra period played when a knockout tie is level. The page also covers the penalty shoot-out used when extra time settles nothing.
Read about stoppage timeSubstitutions
The main way a manager changes a team once a match has kicked off. The rules have changed repeatedly over time, and many competitions now allow more changes, and more chances to make them, than earlier versions of the game allowed.
Read about substitutionsThe handball rule
One of the most argued-over rules in the game. The basic principle is simple, but the detail of what counts as a deliberate or unnatural handball is where most of the confusion lies. The page covers when a handball leads to a free kick, a penalty or a card.
Read about handballYellow and red cards
How referees manage player behaviour, from a yellow card as a caution to a red card that sends a player off and leaves the team a player short. The page covers what each card is shown for, how two yellows become a red, and how cards can carry into suspensions.
Read about cardsVAR
The video assistant referee, used in many top competitions to help officials get the biggest decisions right. It checks goals, penalties, red cards and mistaken identity, and only steps in for clear and obvious errors. The page explains how a review works and what VAR is not allowed to do.
Read about VARFree kicks
One of the most common restarts in football, awarded after most fouls. Most are played quickly and without incident, but a free kick near the penalty area is one of the most dangerous moments in a match. The page covers the difference between direct and indirect free kicks.
Read about free kicksPenalty kicks
One of the most decisive restarts in the game, taken from 11 metres (12 yards) with only the goalkeeper to beat. The rules are precise, designed to make it a fair contest between taker and keeper. The page covers how a penalty is taken and the common ways one can be retaken or disallowed.
Read about penalty kicksThrow-ins
The most common restart of all, used to return the ball to play after it crosses the touchline. The technique is simple and tightly defined, and getting it wrong gives away a foul throw and hands possession straight to the opposition.
Read about throw-insCorner kicks
One of football's most important attacking restarts, most often awarded when the defending team put the ball behind their own goal line. Corners can also be awarded for specific goalkeeper or goal-kick delay offences. The rule itself is simple, but attacking and defending corners are among the most rehearsed parts of the modern game.
Read about corner kicksGoal kicks
One of the simpler restarts, usually awarded when the attacking team put the ball behind the goal line. A 2019 rule change, allowing the ball to be played to a teammate inside the penalty area, has turned the goal kick into the starting point for many attacking moves.
Read about goal kicksWhere to go next
Once you understand the rules, the next step is to learn how players are arranged on the pitch.