What is mini football?

  It's completely logical every user to ask himself this question, when he visits www.about-minifootball.blogspot.com, so in this article I will give this user an answer.

  Mini football is not a computer or board game, it is mini variant of the most famous sport in the world. A lot of people associate it with futsal (which is football in sport hall or hard layout), but it's different. Mini football is a new direction of football. The short definition of it is a football game, played by two teams with 6 players each. The game is played on artificial grass field, with smaller size. Other names of mini football are "six-a-side" or "five plus one". Of course mini football has a lot of variates, people play it on different fields, with different number of players and different rules, but in the latest years, a lot of national federations are developed and they decided to put some standard in mini football. Now there are mini football Champions league, mini football European championship and even mini football World championship. So I can definitely conclude, that mini football is one of the most prospering sports for amateurs.

History

  In 1860s professional football clubs used small sided football in training sessions, in order to be prepared for their 11-a-side matches. In quarters and schools children start to play football on smaller fields and with less number of players. These are the first glimpses of modern mini football game. In 1960s there were some tournaments organized across the United Kingdom. In early 1970s started the first competitions of 6-a-side teams, played on grass.

  In 1980s managers, scouts and football agents start to organize mini football tournaments, because they realize that this is a good opportunity to follow the development of future stars.

In the late 80s some private facilities started to organize their own small-sided leagues.

Now there are many Sunday leagues, Saturday leagues, IT leagues, Business leagues and others.

The Field

The standard field size for playing mini football is

- Maximum length 42 meters. Minimum length 35 meters
- Maximum width 25 meters. Minimum width 20 meters

  The overlay is artificial grass or turf. There are fields with and without ceiling. On the field there are two goals on both ends of it, with size: width 3 meters and height 2 meters. As the standard football and futsal pitches, on mini football fields there is a penalty area, throw in lines and goal lines.

Players, equipment and officials

  Every mini football team is composed by 6 players, one of whom is a goalkeeper. There are two referees on both side lines of the field. Players from one team should wear standard shirts, shorts and socks with same colors, different from the colors of the oppositions, or they will have to wear an electric green or electric orange singlets. The goalkeeper has to be with different colors, that is also rule for the equip of the refrees. One of the referees is main and he controls the game, the second one gives just a support in making of decisions. Players can wear shinguard made by plastic. They can use standard shoes with flat out sole (used in futsal) or shoes made for turf overlay. It's forbidden to wear a football boots with spikes, no matter plastic or metal.

Halftimes and breaks

  One mini football game has two half times, just like futsal and standard football. Both of the half times are with duration 25 minutes, there is a break for 5 minutes between them. Both of the teams can have 2 timeouts, one for every half time, with a duration of 60 seconds.

Standard rules

  Start of the halftimes in mini football is made by kicking the ball from the center point of the field. The throw ins here are performed with foot, just like a corner, but the players can not score directly from throw in. That means if a player strikes and the ball and it did not touch other player, there will not be a goal. Only the goalkeeper can play with hands, but only in the penalty area. If the ball crosses the goal line, but there is not a goal, the goalkeeper resumes the play by throwing the ball. All of the fouls are direct free kicks, which means that players can score with direct shot. The sliding tackles are forbidden and are sanctioned with yellow card. The penalty kick is performed from the penalty spot at 3 meters away from the goal line. It's taken just like in standard football. In mini football just like a futsal, there is not a rule for offside. A goal is scored when the ball passes the goal line with whole volume. There is not a limit on substitutions, which is same as futsal and hockey.

Bookings

  There are three types of bookings, which is different from futsal and football. In Mini football players can receive yellow, red and blue card. Yellow card is given for continuous number of fouls, for a tackle from behind or for a hard tackle. Blue card is given for two yellow cards, for very hard foul or for a foul that stops a direct goal. The blue card means that the player is sent off, but with the possibility to make a substitution. The red one is given for rude words directed to referee or a player from the opposition team, for spitting or for an attempt of assault of the officials or opposition team's player. If the player receive a red card, he can not be substituted.

Players can not wear jewelery and they will receive a yellow card if they play with such.

Federations, championships and leagues

  As the mini football prospers, there are a lot of federations in different countries. There are world and European national championships. There are also Champions league and tournament which is like Europa league. There are a lot of leisure, amateur, Sunday, Saturday, business, IT and other leagues organized through different countries.

  I am planning to write separated article about different leagues and championships organized by the federations.

FIFA, UEFA and development

  As mini football becomes more and more popular through the kids, UEFA and FIFA have a programs for
development of the sport. Both of the football federations give investments in different countries in order to build turf fields for mini football in different cities, where mini football can be played for free. By doing this, FIFA and UEFA want to promote the sport through the kids and to give them another opportunity for building their health.

I am planning to create a post with FIFA and UEFA plans and programs of development of mini football.