Swamp football

Swamp football is a form of football, which is played in bogs or swamps. The sport is said to come from Finland where it initially was used as an exercise activity for athletes and soldiers, since playing on soft bog is physically demanding. The first organised championship was the 1998 Finnish championship and was the brainchild of Jyrki Väänänen nicknamed "The Swamp Baron". There are currently an estimated 260 swamp football teams around the world.

The World Championship in swamp football is played in Hyrynsalmi in northern Finland, the first taking place 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 Ísafjörður in the north west part of Iceland.

wamp Football in the UK

A first British national tournament of swamp football was held in June in Dunoon, Scotland in 2006. Owner's Club VIP's won the women's event and Edinburgh Thistle won the men's competition.

In 2008 the Dunoon competition moved to nearby Strachur to become the New World Championships. 43 teams entered the tournament, which was contested over 3 days. Top honours went to Team Rambos in the men's competition with Belgium's De Rode Modderduivels winning the mixed competition.cite web|url=http://swampsoccer.co.uk/results_2008.html|title=New World Championships 2008 Results|accessdate=2008-06-25]

Rules

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 metre 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 metres wide

References

External links

* [http://www.suopotkupallo.fi/index.php?c_la=en Swamp Soccer World Championships]
* [http://www.swampsoccer.co.uk The UK swamp soccer tournament]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1051570 BBC's web page on swamp football and its rules]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/uk_swamp_soccer_tournament/html/2.stm Images from a Scottish tournament]
* [http://www.myrarbolti.com The Icelandic swamp soccer page]