A fictional future football code

Note: rules and other things subject to change. This sport has yet to be tested in the real world.

The world's most popular sport in DIES IRÆ is tentatively called "New Football". Invented in the mid-21st century, it is a code of football influenced by the various codes existing today: association (soccer), rugby union and league, gridiron (American-Canadian), Gaelic and Australian rules. It is especially fast-paced and physical, with relatively simple rules but fairly complicated and high scoring.

The field of play is oval-shaped, 100 meters long and 60 meters wide, with Gaelic-style composite goals 80 meters apart, leaving ten meter end zones behind the nets. (Image of pitch layout to be added later.) The goals consist of both a net and uprights, with the goals six meters wide and the crossbar two meters high. The ball is smaller than an association football so it can be more easily handled and thrown. A handball could be used, with a diameter of up to 60 cm and a weight of up to 450 g.

There are nine players on each side. A typical formation consists of three forwards, three midfielders, two defenders and one goalkeeper, but formations can vary greatly.

Unlike association football, the ball can be carried, advanced and passed to teammates by hand. The ball carrier can be tackled by being wrestled to the ground, as in rugby and gridiron football. If a ball carrier is tackled fairly, a contest for possession called a "ruck" is held; the ball is placed on the ground at the spot of the tackle and the ball carrier and tackler scramble for the ball.

There is no offside rule in New Football. Blocking by bumping is allowed, but flagrantly rough play such as spearing is illegal. Personal fouls can be assessed a warning (yellow card) and a 5 minute suspension (like the penalty box in ice hockey); three yellow cards or a serious infraction results in a red card and game disqualification.

Scoring, derived from gridiron, is as follows:

• touchback (ball misses goal but is downed by opponent in end zone or travels out of bounds in end zone): 1 point
• field goal (ball is kicked between opponent’s uprights): 3 points
• touchdown (ball is carried into opponent’s end zone): 6 points plus conversion try
• goal (ball is kicked into opponent’s goal net): 10 points plus conversion try

Conversions:

• ball kicked over crossbar and between uprights as in a field goal: 1 point
• ball carried into end zone as in a touchdown: 2 points
• ball kicked into goal net as in a goal: 3 points

There are two defensive scores, which also result in a change of possession (a punt is allowed by the team giving up the score):

• safety (ball is downed, passed or fumbled out of bounds in team’s own end zone or over crossbar): 2 points
• own goal (ball is kicked, passed or fumbled into team’s own goal net): 4 points

Professional-level games consist of four quarters of 15 minutes each with a break and a change in sides after each; in case of a draw at the end of regulation, one or more 5-minute overtime periods may be played, or a "shootout" of conversion tries, with each team having five tries, can break a tie. Each team gets two or three timeouts and substitutions per half and one of each in each overtime period.