Football. The beautiful game. Whatever you want to call it. Once you know the game, you will love it. The popular sport consists of 11 players per team, coaches managers, and other staff that help from behind the scenes. Players compete and work together to kick the ball in the back of the net. If they succeed, a "goal" is added to their tally. The team with the most goals scored at the end are the winners, and if the scoreline is even, then the game is a draw.
Teams are put in a league table format, and after the footballing season ends, the team with the most points end up winning. An eleven-aside match of football is 90 minutes long, and is split up into 2 45-minute halves. A win gives you 3 points, a draw gives you 1 point, and a loss gives you no points. Also there is goal difference, where goals for are subtracted from goals against. For example, if a team score 85 goals in a season, but concede 55 goals in a season, their gd(goal difference) is positive 30. However, if you concede more than you score, you get a negative goal difference. Okay, now that you know this, I will tell you about fouls. The referee can decide if a tackle made by one of the players without the ball is deemed unfair, then he/she can give a free kick. However, if the ball is in the box and a player gets fouled, the referee can issue a penalty kick. It is taken on the spot inside the box, and the attacker must have a shot against the goalkeeper 12 yards off the goalline, without moving. If a challenge is especially bad, the referee can give a yellow card to the fouler. 2 of them are equal to a red, which sends off the player and makes the team go down to 10 men. If the challenge is deemed dangerous, then a player can get sent off and red carded straight away. Some other helpful information is the substitution rule. Teams are allowed to substitute 5 players in 3 occasions in a game. However, they aren't roll-on roll-off, so once someone is subbed off, they cannot go back on.
Now, I will talk about professional football. It is broken up into 4 leagues: EFL League 2, EFL League 1, EFL Championship, and the Premier League. There is promotion and relegation. In League 2, the bottom 2 placing teams in the table get relegated. Also, the top 3 teams get promoted to league one automatically, and teams from 4th to 7th play off at Wembley, England's stadium. The winner of the playoffs will also get promoted. The same rules apply until the Championship, but from League 1 and onwards, 4 teams get relegated. In the Premier League, 3 teams get relegated, and the number 1 team win the title. In the Championship, 2 teams automatically get promoted, and 1 team do in the playoffs. Relegation can have a big financial impact on teams, with the smaller clubs losing lots of money, and fighting an uphill battle in the lower leagues. Next time, I will look at clubs getting relegated and how they recover. Also, I will look at competitions like the UCL, Carabao Cup, and FA Cup. I will also look at clubs abroad.