Gaelic football
Gaelic football (Peile Ghaelach in the Irish language) is a sport that was invented in Ireland. It is one of 3 types of football that is unique to a country, the other two being American football and Australian Rules football. Unlike the other 2, Gaelic football is based on soccer as opposed to Rugby.
Rules of Gaelic football[edit]
Gaelic football, like soccer, uses a round ball, but unlike soccer any player can pick the ball up and carry it with them. The rules are similar to another Irish unique sport, Hurling, which in turn is similar to an American sport called Lacrosse (which is also played in Ireland, as well as in its native United States of America).
When playing, the player must bounce the ball every 4 steps or else they have committed a foul. They can also hand pass the ball by punching it with their hand. While bouncing the ball, opposition teams have the chance to take the ball from them. As a result of these rules, typically defenders aim to crowd the player, making them bounce the ball and then lose possession. Tackles are allowed to a similar extent to that allowed in soccer but for the most part they do not happen a lot.
In Gaelic football, the aim is to score a goal. The goal is the same shape and size as the goal in soccer, with a goal keeper standing in front of the goal. If a goal is scored, which is relatively rare in Gaelic football, it counts as 3 points.
Alternative to a goal, an "over" can be scored, in which the ball goes directly over the crossbar of the goal. An "over" is worth 1 point.
A typical end of game score may be 1.9 (total 12 points) to 2.3 (total 9 points), with many games ending with no goals scored but several overs scored.
When a ball hits the post, of either the "over" post or the goal posts, if it remains in play then the game continues on, while if it goes out, then it is a free kick to the other team.
Gaelic football has no such thing as a throw in, as any time that the ball goes out, whoever was the last team to touch it, the other team gets the ball. If it goes out beyond the goal line, then the goal keeper kicks it in, in the same way as in soccer.
Free kicks are awarded for various infringements. If the free kick is awarded close to the goal, a penalty may be awarded, in which the goal keeper is the only one who may protect the ball, in the same way as in soccer.
Generally speaking, Gaelic football is very similar to soccer, but more of a simpler version of soccer with more lenient rules (since soccer does not allow anyone but the goal keeper to pick up the ball).
Financial and popularity of Gaelic football[edit]
Gaelic football is only played seriously in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. While most games get close to sellout crowds, especially for the finals, the grounds are small with 10,000 capacity or less and it competes with Hurling and soccer for popularity as Ireland's favourite sport.
Most Gaelic football players, even those that make the All-Ireland team, do not make enough money to play full-time and must have full-time jobs to support their sport, most making less than $10,000 per year from the sport.
As a result of this, many Gaelic football players have been recruited to play Australian Rules football, where they can earn much higher salaries, as much as $100,000 per year or higher. Some players play both, as the seasons are not exactly the same.
Partially as a way to have an international team, the Gaelic Football League and the Australian Football League combined to create a combined series of rules called International Rules football, which are a combination of Gaelic football and Australian Rules football and they have annual matches between the two sides in the Australian off season. The rules for International Rules football are much more similar to Gaelic football than they are to Australian Rules football and as such the Irish team tend to win more often than the Australian team, in spite of a much lower level of popularity of their national sport. It is through these games that many Irish players get recruited to play in Australia.
To date, no Australian Rules footballer has been recruited to play Gaelic football.