---
title: "Twin Football"
description: "A small-sided match played in pairs who never let go of each other's hands, so every run, touch and shot is a decision you make together with your partner."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/twin-football
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Twin Football

> A small-sided match played in pairs who never let go of each other's hands, so every run, touch and shot is a decision you make together with your partner.

U6 to U12 · 8 to 12 players · 20 × 25 m · 12 min

Also called Tweelingvoetbal, parfotboll, Paarfußball.

![Diagram of Twin Football](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/twin-football)

## How to play

1. Mark a pitch 20 metres wide and 25 long with a small goal in the middle of each end line. Two teams of two or three pairs, no keepers. With more than twelve players, mark a second pitch.
2. Every player takes a teammate's hand and keeps it for the whole game. Players who would rather not hold hands hold the two ends of a bib instead. With an odd number, one team has a three holding hands in a row.
3. Play a normal match: either player in a pair may play the ball, pass to their partner or to another pair, and shoot.
4. If a pair lets go, the ball goes to the other team, who restart with a pass or a dribble from that spot. The same restart when the ball goes off.
5. After a goal, the team that conceded restarts from its own end line. Play blocks of 3 to 4 minutes, then everyone finds a new partner.

## The decision it trains

Two players, one body. The player nearer the ball decides whether to take it on, which drags the partner along, or to give it to the partner's foot, and the partner feels that choice through the hand and has to go with it. A pair that wants to run into space has to agree on the direction first, with a word, a look or a tug. On the ball, the pair looks for the gap between two defending pairs, because a pair holding hands is a wall two players wide and the ball does not go through it. Defending, the two decide together who steps towards the ball and who stays between the ball and the goal, without ever letting go.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** play two pairs against two, so there is more room between the pairs.
- **Too easy:** shrink the pitch to 16 by 20 metres, or count a goal only when both players of the scoring pair touched the ball in that attack.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "How did you and your partner decide who takes the ball?"
- "How did your partner know where you wanted to go?"
- "Where were the gaps between the other team's pairs?"

## Where it comes from

Two federations document it. Voetbal Vlaanderen, the Flemish wing of the Belgian FA, has Tweelingvoetbal ("twin football") in Niemand Buitenspel ("nobody offside"), its training folder for G-football, football for players with a disability: two teams of four or six, every player holding a teammate's hand. The Swedish FA's Skolbollen folder for schools calls it parfotboll ("pair football"), three pairs against three, and adds two of the rules used here: a pair that lets go gives the ball away, and players who would rather not touch hold a band between them. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- Royal Belgian FA (Belgium): Tweelingvoetbal
- Swedish FA (Sweden): parfotboll
- FIFA Training Centre (International): Blindfolded and Guide
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany): Paarfußball

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