---
title: "Maracana"
description: "Six a side with no goalkeepers, and a goal only counts if the scorer is inside the zone: long shots are worth nothing, so the team has to get in."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/maracana
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Maracana

> Six a side with no goalkeepers, and a goal only counts if the scorer is inside the zone: long shots are worth nothing, so the team has to get in.

U9 to U14 · 12 to 14 players · 20 × 30 m · 20 min

Also called petits camps, Petit camp.

![Diagram of Maracana](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/maracana)

## How to play

1. Adults play it on a handball-sized court. For children, mark a pitch about 30 metres long and 20 wide, with a small goal at each end and a zone in front of each goal, about 10 metres wide and 5 deep.
2. Two teams of six, no goalkeepers. Nobody uses hands, even to restart: the ball is kicked or dribbled back in.
3. A goal counts only if the scorer is inside the zone when striking the ball. Players from both teams may go into either zone.
4. Play games of eight minutes. With more than twelve players, each team swaps one player in after every goal.

## The decision it trains

A shot from outside the zone is worth nothing, so the player on the ball stops asking "can I shoot?" and starts asking "how do we get someone into the zone with the ball?" A dribble in, a pass to a teammate arriving at the right moment, a one-two at the edge. Without the ball, attackers time their runs into the zone, since a player waiting there is easy to mark. Defenders read which way in is coming and close it, because there is no keeper behind them.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** make the zones deeper, about 8 metres, so there is more room to get in.
- **Too easy:** shrink the zones to about 6 metres wide and 4 deep.
- **Younger players:** four a side on about 20 by 15 metres, with the same zone rule.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "What were the different ways your team got into the zone?"
- "When a teammate was dribbling at the zone, where were you, and why there?"
- "With no keeper behind you, how did your team decide who stays near the zone?"

## Where it comes from

Maracana comes from Côte d'Ivoire. According to Bleu Charlemagne, president of the Ivorian maracana federation (FIMADA), students first played it on the university campus at Cocody, Abidjan, between 1968 and 1970; the date rests on his account alone. He calls it the street football of Côte d'Ivoire, and there is now an African Cup of maracana. In Senegal it is called petits camps. The competitions are for adults, so playing it with children is an adaptation.

## Documented by

- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany)
- Danish FA (DBU) (Denmark)
- Football Australia (Australia)
- Canada Soccer (Canada)
- Abidjan.net (Côte d’Ivoire): maracana
- Le360 Afrique (International): petits camps
- Fraternité Matin (Côte d’Ivoire)
- Au Sénégal (Senegal): Petit camp

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