---
title: "Ghost Ball"
description: "A match with no ball: a raised hand is the ball, and you pass by calling a name. With nothing to stare at, everyone has to look up."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/ghost-ball
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Ghost Ball

> A match with no ball: a raised hand is the ball, and you pass by calling a name. With nothing to stare at, everyone has to look up.

U7 to U12 · 6 to 10 players · 20 × 25 m · 10 min

Also called Invisi-ball, Haamupallo.

![Diagram of Ghost Ball](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/ghost-ball)

## How to play

1. Mark a pitch 20 metres wide and 25 metres long; the end lines are the goals. Two teams of four or five in bibs, and no ball.
2. The ball is a raised hand. The coach starts the game by calling one player's name; that player raises a hand and has the ball.
3. To pass, call a teammate's name loudly; they raise their hand at once. The player with the ball may also run with it, hand up.
4. A defender steals the ball by touching the player who has it, and raises a hand straight away.
5. A team scores by running the ball over the other team's end line. The other team restarts from its own end line. Play rounds of three minutes.

## The decision it trains

With no ball to watch, every player has to keep track of who has it, so heads stay up all the time. The player with the ball chooses between running with it and calling a teammate who is free further on, and has to call before a defender touches them. The others decide where to get free and when to be seen. Defenders decide whether to chase the player with the ball or cover the teammate most likely to be called.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** add a neutral player who always plays for the team with the ball.
- **Too easy:** a run only scores through one of two cone gates on the end line.
- **Younger players:** play 3v3 on a 15 by 20 pitch, so every child gets the ball often.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "How did you know who had the ball?"
- "When did you call a name, and when did you run?"
- "What did you do to get your name called?"

## Where it comes from

Haamupallo comes from the Finnish FA's Kaikki Pelissä (everyone in the game) material for school PE lessons with football and futsal, in its part on small-sided games. The sheet says it works as 4v4 or 5v5 on small pitches and as a bigger 10v10, and adds cone gates on the end lines and an offside rule as variations. It names no inventor or date, and no second source was found: it is documented only in Finland.

## Documented by

- Football Association of Finland (Finland): Haamupallo
- Canada Soccer (Canada): Invisi-ball

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