Updated: 2026-06-17｜Live data is subject to official announcements.
This introduction to the rules of football has been merged into our World Cup Hub. It was originally set up as a standalone page, but we later found that its topic overlapped heavily with the hub’s content. Rather than keep a thin page on its own, it makes more sense to place the rules explanations inside the hub alongside the schedule and viewing information, so readers can find everything in one place. The original content has not been deleted; it has been moved to the hub and related topic pages, and the old URL is redirected via a 301 redirect, so search engines and existing bookmarks still work as normal.
If you’re trying to quickly get to grips with the rules before a match, offside is probably the one that gets asked about the most: in simple terms, if an attacking player is closer to the opponents’ goal line than the second-to-last defender (usually the last defender, the goalkeeper not counting) at the exact moment a teammate plays the ball, they may be ruled offside. The key is the position at the “moment of the pass,” not the position when the ball is received, which is also why on-field officials often need VAR to check it over and over. A corner kick is awarded when a defending player is the last to touch the ball before it fully crosses their own goal line (outside the goal area), with the attacking side taking the kick from the corner arc. The judgment of a goal seems intuitive, but the rules require the whole of the ball to completely cross the goal line for it to count, and goal-line technology exists precisely for these hair’s-breadth margins. These few rules, plus the basic concepts of fouls, free kicks, and red and yellow cards, are enough to let you follow most matches at the 2026 World Cup.
For more complete information on the tournament, you can head straight to the World Cup Hub, or check out the World Cup Transportation Guide and World Cup Viewing Parties. The official definitions of the rules and competition format are subject to the FIFA World Cup 26 announcements.
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