The Laws of the Game are the rules governing a game of association football. They are written and maintained by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).
Contents |
The current Laws of the Game (LOTG) consist of 17 individual laws:
Today, the above 17 laws are less than 50 pages of a 5.5" by 8.5" pamphlet. This compared to other professional sports where the rule books number into the hundreds and thousands of pages. In 1997, a major revision dropped whole paragraphs and clarified many sections to simplify and strengthen the principles. These laws are written in English Common Law style and are meant to be guidelines and goals of principle that are then clarified through practice, tradition, and enforcement by the referees.
The actual law book has long contained 50 pages more of material, organized in numerous sections, that contain many diagrams but just did not seem to fit with the main 17 laws. In 2007, many of these additional sections along with much of the material from the FIFA Questions and Answers (Q&A), were restructured and put into a new Additional Instructions and Guidelines for the Referee section. This section is organized under the same 17 law points, consists of concise paragraphs and phrases like the laws themselves, and adds much clarifying material that previously was only available from National organizations and word of mouth among referees.
The Laws were first drawn up by Ebenezer Cobb Morley and approved at a meeting of the Football Association (FA) on 8 December 1863.
The Football Association Laws of 1863 as published in the press (in Bell's Life) for approval on 5 December 1863:
At its meeting on 8 December the FA agreed (as reported in Bell's Life) John Lillywhite should publish the Laws, which he said he could do at a cost of a shilling for the pocket size and 1s 6d for the larger size for club rooms.
The Laws of the Game are written by the International Football Association Board (IFAB). They meet at least once a year to debate and decide any changes to the text as it exists at that time. The meeting in Winter generally leads to an update to the laws on 1 July of each year that take effect immediately. The laws govern all International matches and National matches of member organizations.
The board was established on December 6, 1882 when representatives from the Scottish Football Association (SFA), the Football Association of Wales (FAW) and the Irish Football Association (IFA) (now the governing body in Northern Ireland and not to be confused with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) the governing body in the Republic of Ireland) were invited to attend a meeting in Manchester by the FA; previously games between teams from different countries had to agree to which country's rules were used before playing.
When the international football body on the continent FIFA was founded in Paris in 1904, it immediately declared that FIFA would adhere to the rules laid down by the IFAB. The growing popularity of the international game led to the admittance of FIFA representatives to the IFAB in 1913. Today the IFAB is made up of four representatives from FIFA representing their over 200+ member Nations and one representative each from the four associations of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Because six votes are required to make any changes to the Laws, no change can be made without FIFA's approval, but FIFA cannot change the Laws on its own.
Template:Safesubst:PAGENAME Template:Safesubst: Template:Safesubst::
| This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
 |
This page does not provide {{Header}}
information. If you'd like to help, add a comment, or edit
the page and replace "{{no header}}" with the following and fill in
at least the title and author fields:
{{header
| title =
| author =
| year =
| translator =
| section =
| previous =
| next =
| notes =
}}
Click here for a list of
Author pages that link to this page. |
The Laws of the Game are the set of laws for football. They wer first written by The Football Association in 1863. In 1886 control of the laws were passed over to the International Football Association Board who have remained in charge to the present day.
   | The formation of the Football Association and the First FA Rules - Football Statistics :: Football History :: 11v11 |
| | The current Laws of the Game (FIFA Site) - FIFA.com - The Laws of the Game |
| | Q&A Laws of the Game (AskTheRef.com) - Soccer Rules Explained Educating and Amusing The Soccer Referee Since October 11, 1999 |
| | Popular Misconceptions - Laws Of Association Football |
| | Association of Football Statisticians History of Football - Football Statistics :: Football History :: 11v11 |
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search
