Blitz Football®: Overview

Two teams of N and M players on a real playfield with goals and markings, without interference from opponents OR with defenders, take turns attacking each other’s goal in football style. The goals are defended by goalkeepers (or played without goalkeepers), within the Attack Time Reserve (ATR) set for each team before the game.

Team objective: within its ATR, score more goals than the opponent scores within its ATR; if goals are equal, spend less time on scoring attacks.

When N=1, one player forms the team and plays both as forward and goalkeeper.

The playfield may be: — a football field with two goals — part of a football field with a goal — a hockey or football “box” with goals — a school stadium, gym, basketball court, field-hockey court, tennis court, or another area where suitable goals can be arranged.

Markings. For each team, mark the Start and Penalty Mark points. The Start point is where the attack begins. The Penalty Mark sets the minimum distance between the forward and the goal in an attack without defenders. When N×M>1, mark the penalty area to determine an “offside” position.

Before the game, each team is assigned an Attack Time Reserve (ATR) — the time available for all of the team’s attacks in the game (for example, 30 sec) — and an Attack Minimum Time (AMT), the minimum time required for the team to perform one attack (for example, 3 sec).

NOTE: the ability to set different Start and Penalty Mark points and different numbers of players M and N makes it possible to play between teams of different levels, for example between men’s and women’s teams.

START/STOP whistles and Attack Time. An attack begins on the START whistle. Attack Time is measured until the STOP whistle, reducing the attacking team’s ATR during the attack.

The STOP whistle ending an attack is given for any of the following reasons: — the team scored a goal (attack-end reason — Goal) — the goalkeeper saved the goal (Save) — the ball hit the post or crossbar and did not enter the goal (Post/Bar) — the ball crossed the boundary of the playfield (Out) — the Attack Time Reserve reached zero (Time off) — any Restriction on play was violated (see below).

End of Game. When, after an attack, a team’s ATR is not sufficient for a new attack (ATR < AMT), the team loses the right to attack and continues playing by defending its goal. The game ends when both teams lose the right to attack.

The team that scores more goals wins; if goals are equal, the team that spent less time on scoring attacks wins.

RESTRICTIONS ON PLAY

The attacking team may not: — approach the goal closer than the Penalty Mark in an attack without defenders (Penalty Mark) — allow the ball to stop for more than 1 sec (Ball Stop) — allow an “offside” position: a player entering the penalty area before the ball (Offside) — allow “non-participation in the attack”: during the attack, the forward did not touch the moving ball (No Dribble) — violate football rules (Handball, Foul). Penalty — the STOP whistle ending the attack.

A defender may not violate football rules (Defender). Penalty — minus the attack time or 5-10 sec from the ATR.

A goalkeeper may not violate football rules (Goalkeeper). Penalty — minus the attack time from the goalkeeper’s team ATR.

GAME CONTROL BY THE REFEREE AND REFEREE TERMINAL (RT)

The referee is a person who: — before the game sets up RT — during the game: — follows RT instructions — controls player participation in attack and goal defense — gives RT the START ATTACK and END ATTACK commands — indicates to RT the reason and the forward responsible for ending the attack — after the game presents the Game History to the teams.

RT is a mobile web application that: — records game settings according to the referee’s instructions — manages player participation in the game — gives START and STOP whistles according to the referee’s commands — manages timers and measures the current Attack Time and ATR — gives the STOP whistle when ATR reaches zero — records, based on the referee’s input, the reason and the player responsible for ending the attack — updates the goal score, ATR, and Scoring Attack Time — displays data on the scoreboard and announces the goal score and ATR — determines the end of the game and gives the GAME END whistle — creates and saves the Game History.

The referee performs these functions in dialogue with Referee Terminal, opened in the browser of the referee’s mobile device.

SELF-REFEREE MODE. Teams may share the referee’s functions between themselves by passing Referee Terminal before an attack to the captain of the attacking team, who during the attack acts both as forward and referee.

BlitzFootball4All.com provides Referee Terminal to users as a SaaS (Software as a Service).

Example. Final scoreboard for a game between Teams A and B:

PLAYER-ELIMINATION GAME When a team has N=2 or more forwards, a game may be played with elimination of the forward who ended the attack. After N attacks, all forwards are eliminated and the game, or the current round of the game, ends; at that point, each forward has performed the ball action that ended an attack.

GROUP PLAY (PRO) When a team has 5..10 forwards, the game may be played by dividing forwards into attacking groups. After each attack, groups replace one another or the game is played with player elimination. The next group is formed from forwards who have not played in the current round.