The best thing about football is that it can be played practically anywhere. As long as you have a ball, you can kick it around. That’s why it is the world’s most popular sport.

You don’t need 22 players, a full-sized pitch and a set of goals to play. You don’t even need enough for five-a-side and jumpers for goalposts.

With that in mind, here are four beneficial football games that you can play at home with your child.

Footgolf

Just 10 years ago, hardly anybody would have heard of footgolf. Now, there are specialist courses all over the country and even international competitions for the very best footgolfers out there to partake in.

But you don’t need to go to a dedicated footgolf course in order to play – you can set up a ‘putting green’ at home in your own garden. All that you need are a set of towels, a jumper or anything relatively flat that can stop a football by forming the ‘hole’.

The object of the game is to get the ball to stop in that ‘hole’ using as few kicks as possible. Not only is it fun, but it will also help improve short range passing and accuracy as well.

Wallball

Wallball is the ultimate street footballers’ game. Take a ball and kick it against a wall. Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it, but it’s actually a real challenge – especially if you only allow yourself to use your weaker foot or an alternative body part like the head, or if you insist that you change which part of your body you use to return the ball each time.

With so many variations, the game can become mildly addictive as you try to beat your own record of successful passes against the wall. It’s also brilliant for improving control and reaction times.

Football marbles

Remember the classic playground game marbles? You’d have to try and knock your friends’ marbles with your own, earning a point for each strike. Many schoolyard arguments stemmed from this simple yet brilliant game.

If you’ve got two footballs, then you can play a football version of marbles in your back garden. It works in exactly the same manner, except that you are trying to kick one football into another for a point. Ideally, football marbles is played with two competitors but you can go it alone if necessary, rewarding yourself for each accurate hit of the stationery football.

The game encourages accurate passing. To increase the challenge involved, you can increase the speed at which the game is played which will help to develop skills such as playing under pressure. After all, in a game situation you rarely have all the time in the world to pick your pass.

 Football tennis

This is the one game on our list that definitely requires two people. It also requires a net, although that isn’t too difficult to set up. You may already possess a badminton net or a tennis net. If not, then you can simply use a rope tied between two chairs or even a plank of wood. Basically, anything that gives you something to kick the ball over will suffice.

And then you play tennis, except that rather than using a racket and a tennis ball, it’s your feet and a football. The game follows the general rules of tennis and depending on your skill level, you can allow as many bounces as you like: two bounces, one bounce or, for the really ambitious, insist on everything being headed or volleyed back before it hits the ground.

You’ll find that football tennis can improve your coordination, your control and even your fitness as you run around attempting to keep a ball in play. It’s great fun, too.

Football Tennis for one player

If you don’t have a partner or team-mate to play with, then you can still play this game - all you need is a wall and some chalk or cones.

Stand facing the wall with your ball and draw an outline of your “tennis court” with chalk or cones. Volley the ball against the wall, let it bounce once and then hit the wall again. Repeat this and try to set yourself a top record! This game is great for concentration, ball control and can be very addictive if you like setting records.

We hope that you have enjoyed this article and that you have fun playing these football games at home or in the park, take a look at our other training ideas here!