Football / Protocols & guidance
Glossary
IFAB · 2026/27In short
Plain-language definitions for terms used in the Laws.
Authority and officiating
- IFAB maintains the Laws; FIFA governs football worldwide; confederations govern continental regions and national associations govern countries.
- The referee makes the final decisions. Assistants support boundary, offside and other decisions; the fourth official supports substitutions and technical-area control. Additional assistants cover goal-line and penalty-area incidents.
- VAR and AVAR are video match officials. GLT indicates a fully crossed goal line; SAOT supplies offside-position information. EPTS records player performance data.
Play and restarts
- Advantage: letting play continue because this benefits the opposition after an offence or an incorrectly taken restart with the ball in play.
- Direct free kick: a direct goal against opponents is possible. Indirect free kick: another player must touch before a goal can be scored.
- A dropped ball resumes play after a stoppage without an offence, subject to Law 8. A quick free kick resumes promptly with referee permission.
- Playing distance depends on the player’s ability to reach the ball; a kick involves foot or ankle contact.
- A save attempts to stop a ball going into or very close to goal; hands/arms count only for a goalkeeper in their own penalty area.
- Restart position is determined by feet or body parts touching the ground; an airborne player’s feet are projected to the ground. Offside has its own criteria.
Offences and sanctions
- Careless: insufficient care or attention. Reckless: disregarding danger or consequences. Excessive force: more force than necessary.
- Holding becomes an offence when contact with body or equipment restricts an opponent’s movement. Impeding means obstructing or delaying movement.
- Serious foul play is a dangerous or excessively forceful challenge for the ball. Violent conduct concerns excessive force or brutality outside a ball challenge, or deliberate non-negligible head/face strikes.
- Dissent is public disagreement with an official and warrants a caution. Offensive, insulting or abusive language/actions warrant dismissal.
- Simulation creates a false impression to gain an unfair advantage. Unsporting behaviour is cautionable unfair conduct.
- A caution is a yellow-card disciplinary sanction. A sending-off ends participation; a player dismissed after kick-off cannot be replaced. See the separate sin-bin protocol for its special system.
Match administration
- Additional time compensates for lost playing time. Extra time consists of two equal periods no longer than 15 minutes each.
- Suspend means stop temporarily with the intention to resume; abandon means end before the scheduled finish.
- Drinks breaks last at most one minute; cooling breaks generally last 90 seconds to three minutes under competition provisions.
- A team list identifies players, substitutes and team officials. An outside agent is a person not listed and not a match official, or an animal, object or structure.
- The technical area accommodates team staff. A temporary dismissal is a short suspension under authorised competition rules. A concussion substitution is the optional additional permanent replacement described in its protocol.
Independent explanations and translations, not official federation publications. Competition options are labelled separately. Check which options your competition has adopted.
Sources & approach ↗
Sources & approach ↗