Rules for playing Bubble-Football Indoor

 

1. Equipment:
Bubble-Football is played with Bubble Football balls. The players should wear shoes that are adequate for using on the floor of a sports hall. Cleats or spikes are prohibited specifically.

Furthermore the players should attend to wear preferably uniform outfits, so the teams can be distinguished from each other better. Therefor the T-Shirts / jerseys of all members in a team should have the same color. Slight differences in the shading are allowed, provided that these can not lead to confusion with the jerseys of the opponents. To avoid that both teams wear the same color, it is advisable to bring another set of jerseys as an alternative.

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2. Playing time:
the playing time is 1 x 10 minutes. A change of sides or additional time is not provided. Instead the referee will stop the playing time if a longer interception is expected. The same is applied if the referee is of the mind that a team plays out.

Important: the last contact before the final whistle is valid. If the ball is kicked before the final whistle was blown and this action results in a direct goal, the goal is valid, even though the ball crosses the goal line after the final whistle. Naturally the defenders of the opponent team in this case have the right to defend their goal after the final whistle.

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3. Field:
a) The Bubble-Football field is consistent with the field of an indoor soccer game (23×15 meters). It is limited on all 4 sides by an at least 80 cm high board which can be used for advertising. On the shorter sides there are 2 gaps for the goals.

b) The goals have a width of XY and height of XY.
The goal nets are not allowed to be fixed in the floor, because they have to be raised when there is a substitution of players.

A substitution of players over the board is not possible while being in Bumpers.

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4. The teams:
A Bubble-Football team consists of 4 field players. Up to 3 substitutes are allowed.

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5. Player substitution:
a) If there are substitutes, both teams get 1 more BF ball – additional to the 4 BF balls which the players on the field are wearing – to guarantee a faster substitution.

b) The players are not allowed to enter the field without wearing BF balls for reason of safety. Handing over the BF balls on the field is therefor not allowed.

c) The substituted player has to leave the field completely (he is hence also not allowed to stay behind the goal line, because the goal is part of the field), before the new player enters the field.

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A fault in the substitution is punished with a 2 minute long suspension for the entering player. The substituted player also has to leave the field, so that the team has to play with only 3 players for the next 2 minutes.

After that the team has to be restocked with the new player. Therefor he must have entered the field. He can be substituted after that again, just like every other player.
If the team has only 3 players left on the field, because of a penalty, the team is allowed to restock the field players up to 3 again in case of another penalty. The second penalty is extended by the period of time that is left from the first penalty.

Example: Player A has to sit out a penalty of 2 minutes. Player B from the same team commits a substitution fault 30 seconds before the first penalty ends. Hence player B has to stay outside of the field, but his team can arrange a substitution with another player (but not player A), so that there are 3 players on the field again. The ban for player B then extends to 2:30 minutes, while his team has to play with only 3 players. If there aren’t enough substitutes, the team can go on without a substitution as an exception. Nothing changes for the ban of player B.

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There has to be a minimum of 3 players per team on the field. If there is no possibility, because of penalties or a lacking amount of substitutes, to have 3 players of one team on the field, the game will be abandoned and evaluated as a 5:0 for the opponent. If, by the time of the game abandonment, the goal difference is in the opponents favour and higher than 2 goals, the opponent will be credited with 2 more goals.

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Example: team C are 2:6 down against team D by the time the game is abandoned, which was caused by team C.

Team D will be credited 2 more goals for the abandonment of the game. Thus the game will be valued as 8:2 for team D. Thereby tactical game abandonments shall be prevented.

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6. Before the game:
The 4 starting players of each team enter the field in their BF balls in a line and pass the players of the opposing team in the middle of the field. Because it is not possible to shake hands while inside the BF balls, every player “bumps” the opponent lightly as a greeting. This means that the players bump their Bumpers against each other by bending forward with their upper body.

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Important: this is the greeting! The opponent should not be knocked over (this follows later). An immoderate bumping can already cause a 2 minute penalty. This is remaining to the discretion of the referee. It is also punished with a 2 minute penalty, if there is no greeting at all.

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Following both teams betake themselves to the board that belongs to their goal. The goal line referees check if everybody touches the board with his BF balls. If everything is correct, the referee lays down the ball in the middle of the field and blows the opening whistle.

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The start of the match:

The kickoff is made in the middle of the center circle (respectively of the soccer field) after the referee blew the opening whistle.

Both teams have to stand on their side of the field, which is decided by the choice of ends. The referee flips a coin and the triumphant team performs the kickoff. A goal can be scored directly out of the kickoff, thus with the first ball contact.

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Scoring a goal:

A goal can be scored with every part of the body and with the BF balls itself. Of course there is no handball. The last ball contact has to take place in the half of the field, in which the goal is. Whether the last player, touching the ball, is an offender or defender is not relevant.

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Goal keeper:

There is no goal keeper, because no player can touch the ball with his hands. It’s up to the teams, whether they let one player guard the goal or not.

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Bumping:

Pushing someone over, pushing someone away, running over somebody… in Bubble-Football you “bump”.

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Attention should be paid to the following rules:

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1. You are only allowed to bump from the front or the side, so that the attacked player has the possibility to react and assemble a certain body tension. For health reasons bumping from behind is prohibited. The only exception: the attacked player turns around shortly before the collision. In this case he has to expect to be attacked anyhow.

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2. Basically every player can be bumped, no matter if he’s got the ball or not. This way it is possible for an offender to put a defender away, who is standing in his way to the goal, without need that the defender has the ball. Likewise a defender is allowed to bump an offender away to prevent him from running straight to the goal untroubled.

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3. It is only allowed to bump standing players. If somebody is laying on the floor, kneeling or tries to get on his feet again, he is secured. Bumping as a revenge is prohibited as well, provided that it is not carried out in course of the game play. Who follows an opponent deliberately to bump him over, commits a foul play and will be cautioned (with a yellow card).

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If the ball flies into the BF ball of a player from above and lands on his head, he can continue playing and has the opportunity to try to carry the ball into the goal. He will probably be the target of the opponents then and has to expect being attacked. If he is getting knocked over and the ball does not fall out of the Bumpers, the game will be paused, the ball will be fetched out and the game continues with a referee ball. The affected player can also kneel down as soon as the ball flew into his Bumpers and this way protect himself from being attacked. In this case the game will also be continued with a referee ball.

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It is allowed to bump on the boarders, but never in corners. Players and BF balls can be harmed this way, because there is no space to fall over. A player, who is fetching the ball out of a corner, must have the opportunity to bring the ball back into the game. While racing for the ball, bumping is allowed of course. But also a player should not take advantage of this situation to play for time. In this case the match continues with a free kick for the opposing team.

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The following lacks of sportsmanship are valued as a foul and lead to a yellow card:

A player, who is laying on the floor, is bumped.
A player, who is laying on the floor, trips someone up.

Exaggerated complaining against the referee.
Demanding personal penalties for the opponent.

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Yellow cards are noted by the referee.
A third yellow card for one player results in a 2 minute penalty.
If a player gains the third 2 minute penalty within one game, he will be banned for the rest of the game.

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Kicking is prohibited generally – neither kicking the BF balls nor kicking another player is allowed. According to the cruelty of the kick, the kicking player will be punished with a 2 minute penalty or even with a playing-time-disciplinary-punishment. Contact between the players has to come about with the BF balls exclusively.

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There is only a penalty kick if a player, who is running freely towards the opposing goal, is being bumped from behind. When a penalty kick is given by the referee, the player, who has been fouled, is allowed to shoot the ball out of a 6-meter-distance onto the goal, which is defended by an opponent on the goal line. The goal keeper is only allowed to leave the goal line after the shot of the fouled player. The penalty kick does not have to be shot by the fouled player himself. The player, who has committed the foul, receives a yellow card.

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If the ball is constrained from rolling over the goal line by a substitute player, who is actually not on the field in this moment, the referee will allow a goal and the substitute will be punished with a 2 minute penalty because of a rough unsportsmanlike behaviour, as mentioned above, and his team has to continue the match with one player less on the field for the next 2 minutes. All other irregularities will be punished with a free kick or a personal penalty for the perpetrator.

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If a ball is hauled across the sideline and is assessed as out, the game will be continued with a free kick for the opponent at the exact point, where the ball has left the field. If the ball flies over the boards at the goal line of the opposing team, they will be awarded with a goal kick. When the same happens with the teams own goal line, a corner kick will be performed.

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When performing free kicks, corner kicks or goal kicks the game is paused. Bumping is not allowed in this time. The opposing players have to keep a distance of 3 meters to the executing player. The executing player has to bring the ball back into the game with a pass immediately. He is not allowed to walk with the ball by himself. If the player takes too much time (this is in the discretion of the referee – if a player is laying on the ground, he has to have enough time to get up again), this is valued as a delay of the game and the opponent will be awarded with a free kick. A free kick can be executed by all players of the team, it is not necessary that the fouled player performs the free kick.