What do you know about footchal? Have you heard anything about playing on a muddy field? What do you know about the origin of footchal? Please keep reading to find these questions answers.
The good old days of childhood remind the modern and civilized Man of playing with mud while running, shouting, and laughing with brothers and sisters. Everybody who has grown up in a village confesses that it was a pleasant story that a fairy narrated.
In the good old days, little kids mixed water and soil to construct something like a mud Man. After a while, they became tired and wanted to get rid of sticky hands and wash the mud.
What good days! Long live the reviving memories of sweet childhood passed on muddy fields. When these kids grew up, they decided to continue playing with mud, so they tried playing soccer on a muddy field. Can you imagine it? It might be exciting, mustn’t it?
Running, kicking the ball, and dribbling in a muddy field are the main characteristics of a fantastic game called footchal. People in a beautiful location in the northern part of Iran named Kinchah enjoy playing a local kind of football.
Indeed, Kinchah in Astaneh-ye Ashrafiyeh County is the birthplace of playing soccer in paddy fields and helps universalize it. So, in the succeeding parts, let’s discover footchal in detail and learn:
- What is Footchal?
- What does it mean?
- And where is it done?
What Is Footchal?
Physical games are a form of exercise and provide an opportunity to increase our muscle strength and physical coordination. Footchal is a football-like indigenous sport that northern people play on a paddy field.
This game is more common in Gilan province and among farmers; indeed, they practice it when they plant rice in agricultural fields. People of Guilan Province use most of the plain lands for rice cultivation.
Gilan is the second-largest producer of rice in Iran. The reluctance of some young people to work in the paddy fields prompted some rural activists to encourage young men to work in the countryside and rice fields. Iran has various ceremonies and rituals and Footshall or Footchal is one of them.
What Is the Meaning of Footchal? Where Does it Originate?
The word footchal, or playing soccer in paddy fields, is made of two parts:
- The foot, which refers to football;
- And chal, which is a Gilaki word that means mud.
As mentioned earlier, Kinchah in Gilan Province is the birthplace of this game. The local people overcame deprivations and introduced it to other parts of Iran and even the universe.
This exciting game starts in the last days of Ordibehesht (the second month in the solar calendar) in memorizing the martyrs of Kinchah and Astaneh-ye Ashrafiyeh. If you want to observe it, please join Iran in Ordibehesht.
How Does Footchal Emerge?
This game was unknown for many years; however, five years ago, the inhabitants of Kinchah decided to bring it to the center of attention. So, this village’s young and old members were allowed to perform footchal in the paddy fields.
Finally, in 2017, they started the first round to immortalize it. The competitions began with four teams consisting of five players to assess:
- The possibilities of playing in the rice fields;
- The players’ ability;
- And evaluating the popularity of footchal to attract the audience.
Due to the exciting outcome of the game, the competition was more glorious in the second year. The participation of 8 teams and more spectacles add to the game’s excitement. It must be interesting to announce that the formal entities did not support the game.
However, reporters from different countries, including Qatar and Germany, displayed thrilling documentaries. They reflected the happiest moments of playing in paddy fields filled with rice and the captivating fragrance of northern jungles.
How Similar Are Footchal and the Beach Soccer?
As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, footchal resembles beach soccer concerning rules and principles. These exciting sports have some features in common, including:
- Maximizing physical health;
- Creating the happiest moments;
- Providing a chance to play with football lovers;
- And entertaining young people.
The following paragraphs present some information about beach soccer to help you become familiar with football on muddy fields. Who knows, one day, you may come to Iran and decide to join the northern people and experience playing football on paddy fields.
What Is Beach Soccer?
The combination of these words, beach and soccer, revives the sense of running barefoot on the hot sands of northern or southern parts of Iran. In fact, the prerequisite to performing beach soccer is the availability of a sand-covered field.
Playing soccer on the beach dates back to the previous decades when it was not recognized as an international sport, and people enjoyed it for fun. However, it was recognized in 1992 as beach soccer in Miami, the United States of America.
The popularity of the soccer beach reached other countries, including Brazil, Italy, and Argentina, among others. Iran did not miss a chance to introduce beach soccer to its athletes.
Step-by-step soccer beach gave birth to some stars from Spain, France, and Brazil, so this recently introduced sport joined the list of the most popular sports in the world.
The Rules of Beach Soccer
Footchal borrowed its rules from beach soccer, so you must learn them to play on the paddy fields. The rules of beach soccer are determined according to the laws of the Football Association.
Then they personalized for this specific sport. The playing field is a rectangular-shaped area without dirt or dangerous items; hence players can kick the ball safely.
What Are the Principles of Footchal?
Footchal had no rules in the past years and before gaining universal fame; in other words, the players performed footchal for fun. However, the story changed when the inhabitants of Kinchah decided to consider a cup for the champion team.
The rules of footchal resemble beach soccer; each team has five permanent players and three substitutions, and the villagers select two people to judge the game. The field covers an area of about 25*40 meters, and other players can play for 15 minutes for two rounds.
The play continues for 5 minutes if both teams acquire equal outcomes; finally, the winner will be determined, and the cup will be dedicated to the champion. Footchal is the toughest and the most technical play in the world. However, it is the most mind-refreshing and enjoyable sports Man has experienced.
The participating teams consist of five players, one of whom is the goalkeeper. The team can have many substitutions and change players whenever necessary. The exciting point about playing footchal and beach soccer is that the players should play barefoot (without socks and sports shoes).
After the first 15 minutes, the players rest for a while, then start the second round. Two referees are in charge of supervising players and keeping watch on their movements. Both groups sometimes acquire equal outcomes, so penalties and free kicks determine the winning team.
Point: The playing duration is the only difference between beach soccer and footchal. Footchal is played in two rounds for 15 minutes, while in beach soccer, the players kick the ball in three rounds for 12 minutes.
Conditions and difficulty
In this game, there is a lot of pressure on the player. In this discipline, you must jump in the mud and run and hit. The clothes and the body get muddy, making the playing conditions more difficult. The people who participated in this competition grew up on farms and had healthy and strong bodies.
The Bottom Line
Football rose from the heart of almond-shaped eyes country, China, and universalized in 1866 and step-by-step paved the way to the birth of beach soccer and futsal. The heart of producing peanuts in Iran, Kinchah, introduced an exciting play called footchal.
The eager inhabitants of Kinchah, who enjoy football and spend their lifetime on paddy fields, created football in the mud and tried to familiarize more people with this exciting sport.
Nowadays, many internal and foreign tourists and photographers head toward Kinchah to illustrate fascinating moments of playing in mud so that many people can conceptualize the joy of playing footchal.