Score more goals
Move the ball over the opposing team’s goal line, and stop them doing the same. That is the whole of it.
Two halves of 20 minutes. Whoever has scored more at the end wins. Equal scores are a draw.
Half-time is at most 10 minutes.
Time lost to substitutions, injuries and repairs is added back to that half.
The teams change ends at half-time.
The whole ball must roll over the goal line between the two posts.
If it is carried in rather than rolling, it is not a goal. Nor is it a goal if the ball is more than 50.8cm off the floor as it crosses.
And not a goal if the scoring team broke a rule first.
The chair moves the ball. The frontguard pushes and kicks it.
The ball must not be moved by a hand, a foot or the body. Accidental contact is fine.
Handling the ball deliberately is a foul.
No part of a chair may be built to trap or hold the ball.
The ball is hard to lift, so the game happens on the floor.
There is contact, but this is not a violent game. Movement and positioning decide it.
If the ball cannot be lifted, there is no way over a crowd. Space does not open by itself.
When players bunch around the ball the game jams — the ball gets wedged between chairs and nobody can free it.
So the rules spread the players out. Two rules limit where players may be: [Goal area violation] and [2-on-1 violation]. The 2-on-1 rule exists to keep the space around the ball open.
A stopped ball is not simply kicked again.
How play restarts depends on whether the ball left the field, or stopped for some other reason. Eight ways are gathered in the [Restarts] card.
A foul gives the other team a kick — a direct free kick, an indirect free kick, or a penalty kick. Serious ones bring a yellow or red card.
Which foul brings which kick is in the [Other offenses] card.
People with severe disabilities experience loneliness and social isolation at higher rates than others.
This sport gives them a team. Players describe friendships that reach beyond the game itself, and chances to mentor newer players and to speak for the sport.
It is not only physical. Strategy and persistence are part of it.
It may look as though only a joystick moves, but heart rate during play is measurably higher than at rest.
In one study the players’ physical quality-of-life scores were higher than the general population’s. It was a small study of ten players.
The barriers are just as clear: transport, too few teams, equipment, volunteers, and ableist attitudes.
Players also named a shortage of referees and coaches who know the rules.