by Laurent Bellaiche
It recently came to my attention that not everyone affiliated with the University of Arkansas knows the basics and rules of soccer. My initial response to such a disgrace was to call for reinstating the use of an ingenious device created by a French medical doctor: la guillotine. However, I then remembered that the high orders of our administration always smartly indicate that we are a community of scholars and rapid learners. Why not indeed use our heads, rather than lose them, to deepen our knowledge?
Let us thus discuss today some of the kits and equipment typically needed to play a (real) football game, along with some anecdotes about them.
The ball: This is an object that is mostly spherical in shape, with a deviation of 1.5% from perfect sphericity being allowed. Its circumference typically varies between 68 and 70 centimeters (which roughly corresponds to 27-28 inches in a weird unit system). During the 1930 World Cup final, both teams wished to play with their own ball. A Solomon’s judgement was then decreed: The Argentinian ball was used in the first half, that saw Argentina leading 2-1 against the host country of Uruguay. The Uruguayan ball was then employed in the second half, which resulted in Uruguay scoring three more goals and thus winning by 4-2 the first World Cup final.
The football chosen by the Uruguayan team in the 1930 World Cup, which was used in the second half.
Two goalposts and a crossbar: The goal frame consists of two goalposts separated by 7.32 meters (which is 8 yards in another unusual unit), and a crossbar connecting these goalposts at a height of 2.44 meters (8 feet in the third awkward unit of the day) above the ground. While the goalposts and crossbar nowadays are typically rounded , this was not always the case. For instance, these goal features were flat in the 1976 European Cup final between the German team Bayern and the French Saint-Etienne played in Glasgow’s Hampden Park. French midfielder Dominique Bathenay saw his shot hit the crossbar at the 34th minute of the game, which was then followed by a header from another French midfielder, Jacques Santini, that also arrived on this crossbar at the 39th minute. In both cases, the flat, rather than round, shape of the crossbar prevented the ball from crossing the line and Saint-Etienne lost the game by 1-0 rather than won it by 2-1. These goalposts are now known in France as les poteaux carrés (the square posts).
Goal net: A net is also attached to the goalposts and crossbar, which is sometimes useful for the fans to realize that a goal has been scored by seeing the net rippling. However, one always has to be careful as the following anecdote demonstrates. On October 18, 2013, Stefan Kiessling from Bayer Leverkusen made a header that went into the outside of Hoffenheim’s net. Surprisingly, this side had a hole in it whichthe ball went through and therefore made the net shake. The Referee did not realize the net’s imperfection and awarded the goal, which is an example of what is called a “ghost goal’”. Thanks to it, Leverkusen won the game 2-1 and went on top of the German first division, the Bundesliga.
The field: interestingly, not all soccer fields have the same size. Typical dimensions are, however, 105 meters in length and 68 meters in width in the international system of units (which corresponds to 115 yards by 74 yards for those among you challenged by such widely-used units). Knowing about such differences in one’s field, along with loud and encouraging fans, can be a formidable vehicle to win home games. For instance, FC Nantes played 92 matches games at home at their Stade Marcel Saupin without losing a French top league match between May 15, 1976 (defeat against Paris Saint-Germain 1-2) and April 7, 1981 (defeat against Auxerre 0-1). Out of these 92 games, 80 were wins and 12 ended in draws. Many years later, the coach of this French team, Jean Vincent, told a surprising reason for this series of almost five years:
Jean Vincent in 1978
Shortly before my arrival in Nantes, I received, by mail, from a Nantes supporter from the Ivory Coast, a bag of sand accompanied by a few words: you sow this sand in front of the goals and you will be protected against defeat. It cost nothing to try! Discreetly, I went to the stadium and emptied the contents of the bag in front of the goals. You know the rest...” He was then asked for an explanation for the end of this series, to which he replied: “Me too, I wanted to know. I returned to the Saupin stadium. The gardeners, thinking they were doing the right thing, had replaced the lawn in front of the goals and, at the same time, removed the sand. Order another? Impossible, I didn’t have the sender’s address . . .
Corner flags: the four corners of the fields need to have a flag on them. Such flags can also come in handy. During an Izmir derby tbetween Goztepe and Altay in November 2022, one Goztepe fan entered the field, took one corner flag and attacked the Altay goalkeeper with it. It appears that medieval jousting still has its partisans.
The shoes: football shoes typically have cleats for, e.g., the players to grip the ground and grass of the field. In the 1938 World Cup, Brazil faced Poland in the French city of Strasbourg. The score was tied 4-4 at the end of the regular 90 minutes, and extra-time was needed. The field was very muddy. Legend has it that a marvelous football player from Brazil named Leonidas Da Silva, nicknamed the Black Diamond, scored a goal at the 93rd minute without wearing his right foot, which was lost in the swampy pitch. The goal was given because the Brazilian team was wearing black socks and the Referee did not see that Leonidas was missing a shoe. However, some say the myth is not factual and what really happened is that Leonidas took off his shoes at one point during the second half and threw them to his trainer, but that the Referee ordered Leonidas to put them back on, which he did. What is for sure is that the game ended in extra-time with Brazil winning 6-5, with three goals from Leonidas and four goals from the Polish forward Ernst Wilimowski (who played the whole match with his cleats on).
Brazil v Poland in the 1938 World Cup. From the left- Leônidas da Silva, Antoni Gałecki and Władysław Szczepaniak.
Shin guards and long socks: It is now mandatory to wear shin guards beneath socks in a football game. It used not to be the case, with some footballers having a habit of playing with the socks down their calves and no shin guards, probably to show their impressive leg muscles. Examples include the defender Marius Trésor, who hold at one point the record of having played the largest number of games for the National French team, and the Argentinian striker Delio Onnis, who is still up to now the all-time top scorer of the French first division with 299 goals. Having nowadays socks going up just below the knee can have some unusual advantages, as demonstrated by Toifilou Maoulida. This player, born in the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, used to hide some messages inside his socks and to show them to the whole stadium after scoring goals. One example of such message was, “For my Dad and Mom who I love”.
Shorts and jersey: Each player of a team wears the same shorts and jersey, with the exception of the goalkeeper who can sometimes prefer to have track pants and who absolutely needs to have a shirt that is different in color from his teammates but also from the players on the opposite team. During a game in Turkey between Gaziantepspor and Besiktas, Ivan Kecojevic was a substitute and was asked by his coach to replace one of his teammates. He stood up. from the bench, took off his track pants and got close to the line to enter the pitch. There was, however, a slight problem: he had forgotten to wear his shorts beneath his track pants and thus had to come back to the bench to look for it them front of his teammates who were laughing profusely. A story about jerseys: France and Hungary faced each other during the last game of their group at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. They were both eliminated before that last game after having lost their first two games, and France decided to ship home the traditional blue jerseys and only kept the (second) white jersey. The problem is that Hungary also arrived with white shirts for that game. The easy solution to this problem was tohave Hungary play with their red second jerseys . However, the Hungarian goalkeeper wanted to play inhis favorite shirt, which was red too, and which prevented the Hungarian players from wearing the alternative jersey. The French staff had to look around for another set of shirts, which they found from a small fishing Argentinian team. This shirt was green and white and France wore that jersey for their first and only time in its over-100-year soccer history. In my mind, it is a pity because France won that game 3-1 that day.
Lev Yashin training before a match against Feyenoord in 1960
Goalkeeper Gloves: Typically, goalkeepers wear gloves to better catch or deviate the ball away, especially in rainy conditions. Such gloves can also bring un je ne sais quoi to these goalkeepers. For instance, the legendary Soviet Lev Yashin wore black from head to toes, including his gloves, which resulted in him being nicknamed the Black Spider. He is often considered the best goalkeeper ever, which is in-line with the facts that he is the only goalkeeper to ever win the prestigious Golden Ball award (in 1963), that he saved over 150 penalty kicks and had more than 270 games where the opponents could not score against him. Interestingly, there is no rule in soccer indicating that a goalkeeper should wear gloves. This explains why Jan Jongbloed, who was the goalkeeper of the Netherlands at the 1974 and 1978 World cup finals, often played with bare hands.
Referee’s uniform, whistle and watch: Referees wear a jersey that is different from the players and goalkeepers of each team. They have a watch to be sure that the game is played within the allowed time and s a whistle to let the players and fans know of their decisions. A striking event happened at the 1978 World Cup. Brazil was facing Sweden and obtained a corner kick in the dying moment of the match while the game was still tied 1-1. Nelinho kicked the ball from that corner and found Zico’s head, who put the ball at the back of the net. However, to the surprise of everyone, this goal was disallowed because the Welsh Referee, Clive Thomas, decided, after having consulted his watch, to whistle the end of the game when the ball was in the air between the time that Nelinho kicked it and the time that Zico scored the goal. Talk about timing!
Yellow and Red cards. The yellow card is used by the Referee to sanction bad but still minor misconduct by a player during the game. Receiving two yellows cards, or directly committing a serious offense, results in the showing of a red card by the Referee to the player, who has to immediately leave the pitch while his or her team continues the game with one less element. During the 1974 World Cup game between Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Yugoslavia, one player from the African country decided to put his boot up to the derrière of the Colombian Referee, Omar Delgado, at the 22th minute. This Referee then turned around and gave a red card to Ndaye Mulamba who thus had no choice but to leave the field, which resulted in Yugoslavia trashing Zaire by 9 to 0. The only problem is that the culprit was not Mulamba but rather one of his teammates, Mwepu Ilunga. However, refereeing the game is by no means easy and adopting an understanding attitude towards the Referee is worth to be applauded. So, let us follow the advice given by the English coach Ron Atkinson after one game: “I never comment on referees and I’m not going to break the habit of a lifetime for that prat’’.
Laurent Bellaiche is a Distinguished Professor in the Physics Department and Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering, as well as the Twenty-First Century Endowed Professor in Optics, Nanoscience and Science Education (for more details, please see: ccmp.uark.edu). His favorite team is Paris Saint-Germain, especially that of the first trophies (French Cups) in the 1980’s, with the three Dominique’s (Baratelli, Bathenay and Rocheteau) and two jewels (Safet Susic and Mustapha Dahleb). His two favorite male football players of all time are Diego Armando Maradona and Robby Rensenbrink. His current three favorite female players are Grace Geyoro, Melchie Dumornay and, of course, Sophia Smith. His favorite soccer/football quote is one from Bill Shankly, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death – I assure you, it’s much more important than that.”