Gerenian rules football

Gerenian rules football

Highest governing body	Gerenian Rules Football National Commission
First played	2012
Clubs	~40
Characteristics
Contact	Full-contact
Team members	12 per side
Mixed gender	Single
Type	Team sport, ball sport
Venue	Outdoor

Gerenian rules football, also called Gerenian football, is a sport played between two teams of twelve players on a rectangular field with two goals at each end. The players score points by kicking the ball into the opposite goals. The team with the higher total score at the end of the match wins, unless either a draw is declared or a tie-break is used.

Gerenian football is since 2014 one of the national sports of Gerenia.

History

Gerenian football has its roots in a sport called "harshie football" ("harshie" coming from the word "harsh"), which was created in the mid-1990s. Harshie football was a variant of association football in which the players were allowed to hold and handle the ball, tackle the opponents, and kicking and punching them (hence the name "harshie"). Though aggressions were permitted when the intention was not to cause harm deliberately, many flagrant acts of violence occurred match after match, and they usually remained unpunished. After a succession of tragic incidents, the government banned the practice of harshie football. It was 1999.

During the following years, harshie football lived on secrecy, however, all its popularity was lost due to the prohibition.

In 2004, it finally appeared Gerenian rules football (with different denominations, according to the region or city), as a non-violent version of harshie football. Most of the rules were kept. By 2009, the reformed sport was widely popular.

In 2012, Gerenian football was introduced in the newly founded Gerenian Colony of New Calarma on Micras by the settlers. They were the ones who gave Gerenian rules football its name, and made the modern version of it by applying a few changes to the rules. The one with more impact on the game was the addition of a second goal per side, which entailed a modification of the scoring system.

As early as 2014, the Gerenian government declared Gerenian rules football national sport, at the same time than hetlöhi, and supports the sport through the Gerenian Rules Football National Commission.

Gameplay

Gerenian football is played using a spherical ball (oval balls or even those with an undefined shape are allowed, though not in official competitions). Two teams of twelve players each compete to get the ball into the other team's goals to score points. The team that has scored more points at the end of the game is the winner; if both teams have scored an equal number of points then the game is a draw.

Goals can be scored with any part of the body, except the arms. However, during game play, players can throw and pass the ball using their hands, and also handle it, as long as they are outside the penalty area. The goalkeeper can touch the ball with his or her arms at any time to make saves. Goals scored in the small goal are worth 3 points (2 if coming from a penalty kick), and goals scored in the large goal are worth 2 points (1 point if coming from a penalty kick).

As a contact sport, Gerenian football allow players to tackle (either by using their hands or their legs) and obstruct the opponents.

Laws of the game

Field

Gerenian football is played on a rectangular field, 75-100 metres long, and 50-70 metres wide. No more than twelve players of each team may be on the field at any time.

The longer boundary lines are called side lines, while the shortest boudaries are goal lines. Two rectangular goals are positioned at the middle of each goal line. Such goals are denominated small goal, and large goal, because of their sizes: the inner edges of the vertical posts must be 5.5 metres apart for the small goal, and 8.2 metres for the large goal, and the lower edges of the horizontal crossbars must be 2.2 metres above the ground for the small goal, and 3 metres for the large goal. Shallow nets are placed behind the goals.

There is a penalty area, marked by the goal line, two lines starting on the goal line 13 m from the posts of the large goal and extending 10.5 m into the pitch perpendicular to the goal line, and a penalty line joining them. Penalty kicks are taken anywhere on the penalty line, and scoring into the large goal from inside the penalty area is not valid.

Match duration and tie-breaking

A standard Gerenian football game consists of two periods of 35 minutes each, with a ten-minute pause between them. When the ball is out of play, the clock is stopped.

If a match ends in a draw, penalty shoot-outs can be used to determine a winner. There are three varieties of shoot-outs: penalty kicks, one-to-one, and three-to-three situations, with different numbers of players being involved in the shoot-out.

Penalty kicks are taken from the penalty line, with the goalkeeper trying to impede the goal to be scored. A variation of this tie-breaking method is the "one-to-one situation", where the player runs towards the goal from a mark 25 m away from the opposite goal, and has 11 seconds to score. If within this period the player failed to score, no points are awarded. If the rival goalkeeper fouls on the player, the situation is repeated. A second foul on the player may result in his or her team being awarded two points.

Three-to-three situations are a recently-proposed, experimental sort of tie-break. Similar to one-to-one situations, it involves three forwards from the attacking team, and the goalkeeper and two defenders of the opposite team.

Competitions

The Gerenian Rules Football National Commission (KNZSG) will begin running a national league in 2015 (probably during the second half of the year), with annual seasons. Until then, the different clubs existent in the country will compete in a "Formation Tournament" as a manner of organising the national and provincial leagues.

Gerenian football will be featured in the first Gerenian National Games.