Kæra Rules Football

Kæra Rules Football, known in Kæra'zna as Syr'zho (Ice Travel War) or simply Tsy Þy'sats (Foot Ball) is a team winter contact sport played on a rectangular ice rink or marked area of a frozen lake of various dimensions. Points are scored by kicking a spherical rubber ball, most traditionally orange, through the other teams wide, low goal called a Zha, or "Capital".

During normal play, each team begins with 8 players with freedom of movement on each side, as well as a goalkeeper guarding the Team's Capital. Goalkeepers are mandated to stand in the vicinity of the Capital in most codes of play, however they are able to use their hands within the course of play, as well as any other part of their body. Players may pass freely, though are barred from making contact with the ball with their arms or hands. So long as the ball is within the area of the field or in contact with a player besides the Goalkeeper, referred to as being "in-play", possession is constantly contested. When the ball is out of play, a 6 econd period is given for a player to make contact with it and continue normal play, else it is granted to the nearest goalkeeper. Generally if the ball is no longer on ice, it is generally expected to be left, however this is a convention, not a rule.

Tackling is allowed and typically encouraged, with most methods of tackling allowed so long as there is "reasonable cause to attain possession", with forms of body, hip and shoulder checking being common. The restrictions on checking are more liberal than Ice Hockey, allowing elbowing, hip-checking below the knee and charging, however hitting from behind is still penalized, as well as tackling a player who did not have reasonable access to the ball.

The sport was founded in 1859 in Zhar'osyk in the Kæra Collective Republic and has become the national and most popular sport of the small nation, due to its lack of equipment and ease of access to frozen lakes in the country. This is, in part, due to the banning, and therefore lack of requirement for protective gear, with the sport played using either regular or bowling shoes, and with the wearing of protective clothing or gloves banned due to the internationally controversial Elimination Rule.

The Elimination Rule, or Eradication Proviso, is a result of the lack of substitution in the sport. The rule states that if a player is unable to stand or has broken the rules egregiously, they are not able to continue play and are therefore sent off without replacement. Should all players of a team be eliminated excluding the goalkeeper, the team loses by default. This rule is known to drive increased violence in the sport, which already lacks much of the generally accepted safety standards of most sporting competitions.

Name

Kæra Rules Football is known by a wide variety of names, with KRF being the most commonly known international abbreviation. Some argue against the name, however, stating the sport cannot be accurately described as a variant of Association football, owing to its influences from other winter sports, such as Ice hockey. The domestic name Syr'zho, or the corruption "Sierzho" are occasionally used instead to separate the sport from Football. In Kæra'zna, Syr'zho and Tsy Þy'sats - the Kæzhyn phrase for Football - are used interchangeably, with the prefix Pa (Meaning "Warm") is affixed to make specific reference to Football that does not follow Kæra Rules.

History

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Rules and Organization

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Controversy

This page (or section) is a work in progress by its author(s) and should not be considered final.