Talk:Football pitch/Archive 1

Moved from Playing field (soccer)
I moved this page from Playing field (soccer) (created by User:Bigeazy) to keep the naming consistent with other football related articles. Cheers, --Daveb 07:03, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

Imperial and metric dimensions do not match

 * The dimensions given on the graphic, both metric and imperial do not match the dimensions given in the text i.e. the graphic shows 100-130 yards and 90-120 metres. Jooler 01:28, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Jooler -- the FIFA standard measurements are all easily found, and although we can't use copyrighted images, surely we can grab the official numbers for both metric and imperial measurements and include them in an original graphic? Also, it may seem odd, but FIFA uses yards as the base unit for a soccer field, and metric units are derived from these (read: decimal places). It may be a bit nit-picky, but no need to get it wrong when it's so easy to get it correct, right?

Can a goalkeeper score directly from a goal kick?
Attacking the goalkeeper in the goal area is also not allowed.

I have a doubt if a Goalkeeper can directly score a Goal from a Goal Kick. What are the conditions for such a goal to be scored? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.39.121.225 (talk • contribs)

He kicks it, and through some fluke it goes into the other goal. This happened in a Colombia-Poland friendly in May 2006: The Colombian goalkeeper kicked the ball, it bounced down the field a few times, and ended up going in over the Polish goalkeeper's head. --Delirium 19:46, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm relatively certain the ball has to touch another player before it can be counted as a goal, just like in a corner kick or a throw-in (because the ball is out of play until a corner kick/throw-in is touched by another player). 71.251.128.159 02:22, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Incorrect. The ball is in play once it has left the penalty area, regardless of whether it then has touched another player or not. A goal may theoretically be scored against an opponent from a goal kick. --211.30.121.10 23:33, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
 * And by the way, you can score directly from a corner kick too. Udonknome (talk) 15:22, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

What are the arcs at the edge of the penaly area for ?
Worth putting in the article if you know PeterGrecian 15:04, 22 November 2006 (UTC)


 * The arcs are there because the rules of the game dictate that on every free kick, opposing players must be at least ten yards (9.14 m) away from the ball, so in other words, they have the same function as the center circle or the hash marks by the corners. Players are supposed to be at least ten yards from the penalty spot when the penalty kick is taken. The arcs are not full circles because opposing players must also be outside the penalty area. And yes, I would agree that could be in the article somewhere. Thanks --ChaChaFut 16:56, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Size
FIFA has apparently accepted a proposal for standardizing the pitch dimensions. Here are some links. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=soccer&id=3293801 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/soccer/03/14/bc.eu.spt.soc.fifa.stadiums.ap/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.87.108.95 (talk) 06:59, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

The image, if I'm reading it correctly, says a football field can range from 45x90m to 90x120m. That's a huge difference in area. Since people like to use "one football field" as a unit of measurement, they must have in mind some fixed size, or the comparison would mean nothing. Isn't that the point of FIFA, to standardise things? Njál 22:10, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah, the BBC comes to my rescue:, and is backed up here: . So my question shifts to: how big is a normal football field? If a university decides to build one, how big does it make it? If you manufacture conversion tools for journalists, what do you put in as the dimensions? Njál 22:18, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I know just about nothing about football. so i can't help, but this is something i'd be interested in knowing too, that's why i was reading the article. Please could someone who knows give some information about the variation amongst field sizes - do most fit in to a standard range? Are any of the premiership pitches as small as 45x90m? Is is true that the variation in pitch dimensions is a source of "home advantage" because different shapes and sizes of pitch require different playing styles? Spute 20:23, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Looking at this it would be possible to have a square pitch, has this ever been done.
 * Whilst the minimal length is the same as the maximal length (both 90m), a square pitch is not permitted as the Laws require that the length be greater than the width. --Daveb 10:07, 13 April 2007
 * One could have a nearly-square pitch in theory however M0ffx 11:40, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

I believe the pitch-sizes allowed for major competitions, eg the Premiership, World Cup, etc, are rather more tightly constrained. But I don't recall what they are M0ffx 11:40, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I have only heard of the standard soccer pitch being 90X120m and the indoor soccer pitch 45x90m correct me if i'm wrong, but if i'm correct change the pitch dimensions in the text please. SpitfireP7350 (talk) 11:44, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Playing area and goal dimensions for children of various ages: could these be inserted as a table in both metric (SI) and imperial measures?Martin852 (talk) 14:20, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

Proposed merge(s)
I propose merging penalty area into this article - there's very little info there and it's unlikely to be significantly expanded. I'll try and find the other similar articles too. Paulbrock 17:55, 4 July 2007 (UTC)


 * The Penalty area article covers the functions of the penalty area in a fair degree of detail, presumably due to the particular importance of this part of the field (at least as far as the Laws are concerned). I don't think this is an impediment to the merge, but we should be careful to maintain the information. Cheers, --Daveb 08:34, 4 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I oppose merging too. It's good to keep this article focussed on form, and cover the detail about function in a sub article. Piccadilly 14:21, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Requested move
It was requested that this article be renamed but there was no consensus for it to be moved. - no real support for a move. Keith D (talk) 19:42, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Football pitch → Pitch (Association football)- The move would be in-line with the recent moving of the page Football (soccer) to Association Football and Kit(football) to Kit(Association football).--Lucy-marie (talk) 15:30, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Survey
Moved from WP:RM:


 * No opinion one way or the other, but I'd like to note that Americans would not call their playing area a "Football pitch" but rather a "Football field". --StuffOfInterest (talk) 15:51, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Oppose - firstly, per StuffOfInterest, no clear need to disambiguate this from the US version. Secondly, the association is not capitalised.  The move of kit has been moved back to Kit (association football) from the capitalised Association, by the way.  The Rambling Man (talk) 17:47, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

''please continue the survey below, with any dialogues in the discussion section. Andrewa (talk) 17:53, 10 January 2008 (UTC)''


 * Oppose. Unnecessary disambiguation. Andrewa (talk) 17:56, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Oppose, as others have noted, American football uses field. Oldelpaso (talk) 19:12, 10 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Comment - what about if there was the creation of a seperate article on Gaelic football or for Australian rules football. If these articles were created then cultural diffrences with use of the phrase "football pitch" would be created.--Lucy-marie (talk) 21:07, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
 * As the lack of said articles demonstrates, this is by far the most common usage, and a hatnote to a disambiguation page would be perfectly adequate in such circumstances. Oldelpaso (talk) 22:01, 10 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Oppose, no need. The Rambling Man (talk) 11:14, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Oppose even if there were something else called a football pitch, this would be the prime usage. --Dweller (talk) 13:42, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Support for Pitch (association football). Can see a problem with Gaelic football as Andrewa mentioned below. – Axman (☏) 17:06, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Discussion
In Aus, we call football fields (including soccer fields) fields, see Australian Rules. And we call cricket pitches pitches. It seems logical to us. But I notice that the Irish play Gaelic football on a pitch (probably to annoy the English - it must damage the wicket terribly) so there may be a problem there, but perhaps not quite as bad as is made out above. No change of vote. Andrewa (talk) 08:21, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Indeed. We don't really need to dig too much into the stats to see if there's a prime usage if there's a disambig problem between football (association) and football (Gaelic). --Dweller (talk) 16:14, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Dimensions
Several comments: (1) I generally agree with the feling expressed in "sizes" above. The article needs to mention the pitch size in the body text (not just the diagram caption) and typical sizes need to be listed (eg Olympic, Wembley, UK Premier division - or do they all differ in size and shape!) And (2) The text says the goal width is defined by the distance between the inside edges of the posts. Other dimensions are "from the goalposts" - are these also from the inside edge? (3) Is there a standard line thickness (eg 4 inches?) Are the dimensions to the inside, centre or outside of these lines? (4) The article doesn't make it clear if the metric sizes are just conveniences or are now either Acceptable alternatives to the imperial sizes or now replace them. -- SGBailey (talk) 22:59, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Corner Flag??
I'm curious as to why Corner Flag redirects here? Especially since there is not mention of it in the article.Alex (talk) 18:58, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

I've added citation tags to the Triangular Flags/FA Cup correlation, as I've never seen anything above the level of 'bloke in the pub' to confirm it. Likewise Blackburn's logo on the flags - I'm not querying that they have it on the flags, or that they've won three times in a row, but that the two are related. 213.48.94.65 (talk) 13:01, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Six yard box
I might have missed something but surely the goal area cannot possibly be six yards (18ft) length-wise.

Think about it: A keeper taking a goal kick places the ball at the egde of the "six-yard box" and starts his run up from behind his goal-line. Are you telling me is going to run 18 feet? Just look at the area on TV - there is no way that tiny little box around the goalie measures 18ft x 60ft (6 yards left of goal + 6 yards right of goal + 8 yards of goal line in between).

Unless the meaning of "yard" means something other than 3 feet in football, can someone else please look into this? I feel like I'm going mad!! 92.236.140.63 (talk) 19:17, 26 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't think I entirely know what you mean, but the measurements on the images and in the article are correct and taken from the FIFA Laws of the Game, Law 1 - The Field of Play. Nanonic (talk) 20:31, 26 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It just doesn't seem right - how can the distance between the goal line and the edge of the six yard box equal EIGHTEEN FEET (6 yards)? Something is definitely wrong. 92.236.140.63 (talk) 00:04, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Ah, ok, I thought you had an issue with the article but it seems more to be a personal problem with perceiving distances. If you mainly watch football games on television the foreshortening effect of the camera angle can make the box seem smaller than it is, although 18ft is a relatively short distance (generally about 6 measured paces/strides but larger than most rooms in my house). If you look at File:Estadio Bicentenario Municipal de La Florida.jpg you can see just how much room there is in that small box. Nanonic (talk) 00:05, 29 December 2008 (UTC)


 * That's a really good picture, Nan. Looks like I was wrong after all. Thanks. I really thought the whole world was mad except me. Case closed. 92.236.140.63 (talk) 22:37, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Turf
Is it just me, or is nobody talking about the types of turf used? (ie, grass vs. astroturf) Or is that simply not important?113.34.33.154 (talk) 01:45, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

it's presumably important. added a turf section that can be expanded; or, if 'always grass' is the case in 'association football', then if someone could mention this in the lede and remove the turf section --Arkelweis (talk) 06:38, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Association football pitch new standar long and wide not in the image
nice and great image, but "for A international matches, the IFAB has decided to set a fixed size of 105 metres long and 68 metres wide", somebody (I dont now how) should add something like "105 metres for A international matches" with the current or instead of "90-120 m" and "100-130yds". and "68 metres for A international matches" with the current or instead of "90-120 m" and "100-130yds". Maybe texts in 3 colours: black text- obligatory to every games/matchs; Blue text- allowed in not international matches; red text obligatory only in A international matches.--Feroang (talk) 01:29, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Standardized football pitch
International matches should be able to be played as stated in the Laws of the Game, the international standardization (105x68) appears to not be retroactive and is specifically for new stadiums. The text should be changed as it appears the standardization is now mandatory. SportingFlyer (talk) 19:38, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

Proposal: remove Spanish (Español) link
The Spanish (Español) link is pointing to article "Línea de meta", i.e., a "goal lines" article. There's still no equivalent article to "Association football pitch" in Spanish Wikipedia. The closest possible link would be the "Terreno de juego" section of the "Reglas del fútbol" (football rules) main article.CamiloStrange (talk) 20:12, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Graphic
Hi - I made a graphic of pitch sizes



I'm not au fait with the intricacies of adding stuff like this to pages these days, however I think its a useful comparison (even if England-focussed) to give people an understanding of different laws governing pitch size and their actual realities on the ground. Please add to the main page (or wherever else you feel necessary). Or chop and change it at your wont. — Preceding unsigned comment added by The twelve chairs (talk • contribs) 12:38, 22 March 2014 (UTC)