Swamp Football- Dirty Football

When you hear the word of football, you may remember the Olympic or world cup football. But there is a strange game named Swamp football or also called Swamp soccer. it is a form of association football that is played in bogs or swamps. This festival originated from Bishop Auckland in the north east of England where it considered being an exercise activity for athletes and soldiers, to overcome and triumph hard situations and build their body and power. However the first championship was the 1998 Finnish championship and was the brainchild of Jyrki Väänänen nicknamed "The Swamp Baron" when the creator of swamp football moved there.

The World swamp football championship is played every year on Vuorisuo bog in Hyrynsalmi, Finland, the first contest was in 2000. At the swamp football world championship games of 2005, some 5,000 players participated. The European Championship in swamp football is held in the town of Newton Aycliffe

The 2013 Championship is on June and estimated 260 teams try to make their way to this event.

The standard football rules have been modified significantly to suit the demanding sport:

·         The game is played in two halves of 13 minutes

·         Boots can not be changed during the game

·         Corner kicks, penalties and throw-ins are made with punts

·         There is no off-side rule

·         The penalty area is 5 meters deep but the goalkeeper is only allowed to hold the ball in a three meter radius from the goal

·         There are 6 players on the field, with maximum of 12 in the squad

·         The players can be substituted as often as they want

·         For the major tournaments the pitch is simply a dry muddy field which is covered in water, rather than a naturally occurring swamp. The dimensions of the pitch are roughly 60m long and 35 meters wide

This dirty festival is now famous worldwide and although it is dirty and dangerous more participants want to try and win the championship every coming year.