The Rules of Snowshoe Football
The rules of the novelty sport follows to a great extent the rules of European football, where each team has five (5) outfield players, one (1) goalkeeper and maximum four (4) substitute players (in total, there can be tops 10 players per team).
As a principal in snowshoe football we try to follow the rules of traditional European football with a couple of exceptions:
- the goal-kick is a goal-throw, i.e. the goalkeeper throws the ball, but not further in the air than maximum to mid-field
- a throw-in has been exchanged to a kick-in
- a corner-kick remains a corner-kick
- after two (2) yellow warning cards follows automatically a red card, after which the player is sent off for the rest of the game
- in case a player receives a red card without receiving a yellow card the player is sent off for the rest of the game in question and the following game
The size of the pitch is 15 x 20 meters, and the goals are the size of handball goals, i.e. 2 x 3 meters. The size of the football is standard 5.
Playing time is 2 x 10 minutes in between which is a short half-time break, when teams change side of attack. The playing time is what is called “effective playing time” which means that the clocks are not stopped when the ball goes off the pitch.
In matches where a winner has to be found (when ties are not possible, finals etc.), there is first five (5) minutes of extra time immediately after the actual playing time played on sudden death or ‘golden goal’ principle. If there is still no winner, three (3) penalty kicks will be applied after which, if still no winner, one (1) extra kick at a time is taken until a winner has been found.
For a win each team gets three (3) points, for ties one (1) point and lost matches go without points.
If the teams have equal points at the end of the division finals, mainly the winner is the team that won the internal game, secondly the winner is the team with the most goals. In case of equal number of goals, there will be a decider game between these teams. As a last resort a draw will decide the issue.
The change-over of players is the so-called running change-over, when teams are allowed to change players at any time during the game; however, there are not to be more than 5 outfield players and 1 goalkeeper on the pitch at any given time. This means that the player entering the game must wait for the previous player to leave the pitch before he/ she can go onto the pitch. When leaving the pitch, a player must leave the pitch directly into the bench area and nowhere else around the pitch.
The compulsory equipment in snowshoe football is snowshoes (minimum length 55 cm and width minimum 22 cm; heel fasteners are NOT accepted), shin protectors and team vests. The equipment is included in the Snowshoe Football World Championship 2006 participation cost unless advised otherwise (see entry form). Without the obligatory equipment a player will not be allowed onto the pitch.
On each of the pitches will be one (1) referee, one (1) timekeeper and one (1) scorekeeper.
A live scoring table will be showing the scores for each division and each played game. Each team will have team vests with their player numbers and we will try to keep an individual score ranking list.
All games to be played in the spirit of fun and enjoyment!
