Sports aid - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1980 - 50 Pfennig

To support the tasks of the German Sports Aid Foundation Otto-Fleck-Schneise 12 in Frankfurt, the Deutsche Bundespost is issuing a supplementary stamp series. Football is certainly the most widespread sport in the Federal Republic of Germany. The German Football Association belonged in 1979 in 16 national associations 18,265 clubs with 4.2 million members and over 120,000 teams in all age and performance categories. Since 1970, women's football has also been approved and recognized in Germany. With almost 380,000 female members in the German Football Association, football is already in third place among the sports also run by women and girls, behind gymnastics and tennis. Gameplay and rules are simple - that is also part of the fascination of this game. On a normally 68 to 70 m wide and 105 m long playing field the ball must be brought into the opponent's goal without the use of the hand or the arm, and at the same time it is necessary to prevent goal successes of the opponent. (The use of the hands is only allowed to the goalkeeper in his own area.) Compliance with the Laws of the Game is supervised by a referee assisted by two linesmen as helpers. A team consists of eleven players (one of them as goalkeeper). In a game, up to two players per team may be substituted. In this case, a player who has been replaced once can not return to the game later. Great success of the club teams (in the European club competitions) and the national team have increased the popularity of football in the Federal Republic of Germany in recent decades even further. The national team was twice world champion (1954 and 1974), also occupied in other world tournaments excellent places (second in 1966, third in 1934 and 1970, fourth in 1958), won the title of European Champion (1972) and finished second in the European Championship in 1976.