Blind football words · Beginner

Football for blind and partially sighted players, played by two teams of five (four outfield players and a goalkeeper) with a ball that makes a noise, on a pitch walled by kickboards, in two periods of 20 minutes. Outfield players wear eye patches and eyeshades, and each team has a guide.

Two equal periods of 20 minutes, with a half-time interval of no more than 10 minutes. A period is lengthened so that a penalty kick or double penalty can be taken. A coach whose team starts a half late through its own irresponsibility is shown a yellow card.

For international matches a rectangle 38 to 42 m long and 20 m wide. The long sides are formed by kickboards. All lines are 8 cm wide and belong to the area they enclose. The halfway line has a centre mark with a circle of 5 m radius. The surface is wood or artificial grass (not sand-based or water-based), smooth, flat and non-abrasive.

The wall that forms each touchline. It is 1 m to 1.2 m high, angled no more than 10 degrees away from the pitch, and may extend 1 m beyond each goal line. A ball that rebounds off a kickboard and stays on the pitch is in play; one that passes over the top is out and gives a kick-in.

A spherical ball 60 to 62 cm round and 510 to 540 g at the start, with a pressure of 0.4 to 0.6 atmospheres. A sound system inside makes it noise when it spins on its own axis or through the air. Official IBSA balls are used in IBSA matches. If the ball bursts in play, play stops and restarts with a dropped ball using the replacement; if only the sound stops, play goes on and the referee moves the ball lightly so that it sounds again.

Outfield players must wear eye patches on both eyes and eyeshades made of absorbent material, padded at the front and over the parietal zone. At IBSA-sanctioned competitions the eyeshades must be an official mask approved by the IBSA Football Sport Committee, monitored by the IBSA Technical Delegate. A protective headband is optional. The referees check them before the match, at substitutions, after time-outs and at the start of the second half, and make sure they are worn correctly all match.

No more than five players on the pitch: four outfield players and a goalkeeper, with a guide. A squad has up to 16 people: eight outfield players, two goalkeepers, one guide, one coach and four staff. A coach's translator may be allowed and is not part of the squad. Four players (a goalkeeper and three outfield players) are needed to start a match, and if either team falls below three the match is abandoned.

The team member who directs the attack from the attacking third and from the guide's area behind the opponents' goal. A guide may go onto the pitch during a time-out, and may orientate a penalty kicker from outside the pitch.

The one player on each side who may be fully sighted or partially sighted. Directs play from the defensive third and may handle the ball inside the goalkeeper's area. Playing or interfering with play outside that area gives a penalty kick.

The referee uses the public address system to keep the area around the pitch silent. Deliberately breaking the silence during the match is an indirect free kick offence, and team officials, guides, goalkeepers and substitutes must stay silent while the ball is in play.

Each team may take one time-out of one minute in each half, asked for by the coach through the timekeeper. It may be asked for at any time but is only granted when the team asking has the ball, and the timekeeper signals it with a sound that differs from the referees'. Players stay on the pitch and instructions are given at the kickboards beside the substitutes' bench. The guide may go onto the pitch. A team that does not use its first-half time-out still has only one in the second half.

The word a player must call, clearly and in time, when going for, tackling or searching for the ball, so that the player with the ball can change direction. Voy, go or any similar word will do. Failing to call is a foul punished by a direct free kick, and it counts as an accumulated foul.

The restart when the whole ball passes over the top of a kickboard or hits the ceiling. It goes to the opponents of the player who last touched the ball and is taken from where it crossed. The ball is stationary at most 1 m from the kickboard, the defenders are at least 5 m away, and a goal cannot be scored directly from it (into the opponents' goal gives a goal clearance, into the kicker's own goal a corner kick).