Time To Man Up: Swamp Soccer Is Here

What is swamp soccer?

It’s a 6-side game of soccer played on a field covered in one foot of muck. Not satisfied with inventing the Molotov Cocktail and sending their teenagers out to race and win world rallies, the Fins also came up with the concept of playing soccer in a swamp. Other versions say Swamp Soccer originated as a British Army Training exercise, which became popular when skier Esa Romppainen got involved.

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Is it played in a real swamp?

Stewart Miller, the Scot who invented the sport in the 90s meant for it to be played in swamps due to their abundance in Finland. However, as it moved to the cities, lack of swamps forced organisers to improvise. They would take a field about quarter of the size of a regular football field and dig it up; then they would fill the field with a mixture of mud and water and leave it for 12 hours. In case the owners were too possessive, they’d use inflatables (supersized versions of kiddie pools for a game).

Are the rules any different?

“Yes, there’s no off-side rule. Also, players drop the ball and kick it in case of a penalty kick since it’s not really possible to kick a ball straight off the muck,” Kamlesh Sharma, Managing Director Convergence Events explains. Kick-offs, throw-ins, corners all follow the same pattern. A team can have as many substitutions as it wants and a game can compose of both male and female teams.

Does anyone else play this other than the Fins?

Actually, yes. Eight other countries do and close to 20,000 people stay up to watch the matches in China. Moreover, anyone can make a team of friends, family or colleagues and register – you don’t have to be Bale or Ronaldo to play.

Duration

The total game is 30 mins composed of two 12-minute halves. The time spent in getting mud out of your fingernails and hair is extra.

The Kit

The kits are the same but players use flat soled shoes instead of studs. To make sure the shoes don’t go off in the heat of the game, players’ tie and tape up their shoes to their feet.

Swamp Soccer’s India Chapter

Its Indian organisers hope to capitalise on Indians unending quest for cool and will launch league tournaments in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore. The winner will then compete in the World Cup of Swamp Soccer in Blairmore Farms, Scotland this June.

Different variations of traditional football:

Futsal

Invented in Uruguay in 1930 by a professor who was looking for a version of soccer that could be played at YMCA hostels, Futsal is played indoors with a hard ball on a glossy surface, forcing players to adapt very quickly.

Kemari

The Japanese have been playing Kemari for ages. The sport consists of a sawdust filled deerskin ball, which the contestants keep in the air by juggling with their feet and passing. It’s still played by Kimino-wearing Japanese players.

Sepak Takraw

The original sport was played in Malaysia and other South East Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia etc. Essentially a variant of Kick Volleyball, the sport involves three players on each side of a five foot high net kicking the ball. The court is the size of a doubles badminton court.

Three Sided Football

Played on a hexagonal field, this sport is played by three teams instead of two and came about at the same time that Madonna was going nuts about conical bras. Score is kept by recording the number of goals conceded instead of scored and the winning team is the one who’s conceded the least amount of goals.

Cubbies or Knockouts

One goalkeeper watches over a goal as one or several teams compete in trying to score a goal. The players play in pairs or larger teams. Each team tries to score goals and the one who fails gets eliminated. This is also called Vira-Costas or Turn Back in Portugal.