What’s the best app to learn football (soccer) rules?

For the official rules, the best app is free and comes from the people who write them: the IFAB’s Laws of the Game app has the full Laws, offline, with a quiz, and its sister app Football Rules by The IFAB has a simplified version in plainer language. If you’re a new fan who wants the rules explained in the order you meet them in a match, alongside positions, tactics and fan culture, Onside: Learn Football is built for that (we make it). Referees, coaches and anyone settling an argument should use the IFAB apps: they’re the source.

“Football” on this page means association football, which most Americans call soccer. Not American football. App facts checked on the US App Store on November 8, 2026.

The options, side by side

When the IFAB apps are the better pick

Pick an IFAB app if you need the exact wording of a rule, are training as a referee, coach youth games, or want to check a decision during a match. They are free, they come from the body that writes the Laws, and the full app lets you compare the latest edition with the previous one. Onside is not an official rules source, and its AI explains the game rather than quoting the Laws word for word.

When an explainer fits better

The Laws are written to be exact, not to be read in order by someone watching their first match. A new fan usually needs a handful of rules, explained with the why, and then the things the rulebook doesn’t cover: who plays where, what a formation like 4-3-3 means, how a league table and relegation work, and what fans are singing about. That’s what Onside: Learn Football covers. Its listing also says Ask Onside “will never invent scores or results”; it explains the game instead.

The rules that confuse new fans most

If you only learn five, learn these. Each links to the official Law.

• Match length. Two equal halves of 45 minutes (Law 7). The referee adds time for stoppages, which is the “+4” you see on the board.
• Team size. Up to eleven players a side, one of them the goalkeeper; a match can’t start or continue if a team has fewer than seven. Top competitions can allow up to five substitutes (Law 3).
• Offside. You’re in an offside position if any part of your head, body or feet is in the opponents’ half and nearer their goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent. Being there isn’t an offence; it becomes one when you get involved in play. There’s no offside from a goal kick, throw-in or corner kick (Law 11).
• Cards. A yellow card is a caution; a red card is a sending-off. A second caution in the same match means a red (Law 12).
• Hands and arms don’t count for offside. The IFAB’s own Q&A says arms and hands of all players, goalkeepers included, are ignored when judging an offside position (Law 11).

Our pick

• You want the official rulebook: Laws of the Game (free).
• You want the official rules in simpler words: Football Rules by The IFAB (free).
• You’re a new fan and want the whole game to make sense, rules included: Onside: Learn Football. Free to download for iPhone and iPad (iOS 17 or later). Free: the first 4 lessons of the 14-day course, the basics of all five pillars, and a few Ask Onside questions. Onside Pro is $4.99 a month or $24.99 a year (US prices).

Many people will want two: an IFAB app for the exact rule and an explainer for everything else.