The game is played on a rectangular field called a pitch with a goal at each end. It is played by approximately 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport. Men's since the 1900 Olympics and women's since the 1996 Olympicsĥ-a-side since 2004 and 7-a-side from 1984 to 2016Īssociation football, more commonly known as simply football or soccer, is a team sport played with a spherical ball between two teams of 11 players. Football pitch (also known as football field, football ground, soccer field, soccer pitch or simply 'pitch')
