The Sport

Cycle-ball — football on a bicycle

Picture indoor football. Now take the players' feet away and put them on bicycles. What is left is cycle-ball — known as Radball in the German-speaking countries where most of it is played: two against two on a court of 14 by 11 metres, one ball, two goals, and the ball may only be touched with the bike or the head.

The sport is more than 140 years old, it has world championships and league play, and still almost nobody outside the club halls has heard of it. This page explains it in a few minutes: the rules, the court, the ball, the rather peculiar bicycle — and where the whole thing came from.

14 × 11 m Indoor court size
2 vs. 2 Players on court
2 × 7 min Match length for adults
1883 First public match

01

The rules that matter

Cycle-ball has an extensive rulebook. To follow a match, these six points are enough — with them, every situation on court makes sense. The full rulebook is on the cycle-ball rules page; more terms are explained in the cycle-ball glossary.

The bike plays the ball

The ball is played with the front or rear wheel and with the head. Feet are off limits, and so are hands — with one single exception, see below.

Hands on the bars, feet on the pedals

You may only play the ball with both hands on the handlebars and both feet on the pedals. Reach out or let go, and you are out of that moment of play.

Put a foot down and you are out

Touch the floor with a foot and you may not take part until you have ridden across the extended goal line of your own goal. A fall almost always costs your team a chance.

Hands count only in the goal area

Whoever is defending the goal at that moment may stop shots with their hands — but only inside the goal area, a semicircle with a two-metre radius, and only while both feet stay on the pedals.

The four-metre penalty

The sport's spot kick. It is awarded for serious fouls, for handling the ball outside the goal area and after infringements inside your own goal area: a free strike from four metres against the keeper alone.

Two halves of seven minutes

That is a full match for adults. Juniors play two halves of six minutes, younger age groups two of five. Short — but at this pace, plenty.

02

The court, the goals, the barrier

Cycle-ball is played indoors, on a court of 14 by 11 metres. That is the size for international competition; domestically it may be up to two metres shorter in either direction. For comparison: a handball court, at 40 by 20 metres, is more than five times as large. Cycle-ball happens in a very small space, and that is exactly where the speed comes from.

A 30-centimetre barrier, angled outwards, runs all the way round. It keeps the ball in play — there is no throw-in and no touchline where the game stops.

The goals are square, two metres by two. In front of each sits the goal area, a semicircle with a radius of two metres. That is the only place where the defending player may use their hands.

03

The ball

A cycle-ball is nothing like a football. It measures 17 to 18 centimetres across and weighs 500 to 600 grams — a football, considerably larger, weighs only around 430. So this ball is small and heavy.

The reason is what is inside it: not air, but pressed animal hair, usually horsehair. That is why it barely bounces and stays where it was played. An inflated ball would spring away from the front wheel on every touch; a hair ball can be carried, stopped and struck with precision.

04

The cycle-ball bike

The most striking piece of equipment on court. A cycle-ball bike looks like a bicycle somebody assembled wrongly — and every detail has a reason.

What is different about it

And why

Fixed gear, no freewheel, no brakes The pedals always turn with the wheel. That allows riding backwards, balancing on the spot and accelerating instantly from any position. Braking is done with the legs.
The handlebars stand upright A narrow, vertical U, only 30 to 35 centimetres wide. The rider sits high and upright and can see over the ball at all times.
The saddle sits far back Around ten centimetres above the rear wheel, its nose over the rear axle. The weight is at the back — which leaves the front wheel free to play.
Small wheels, tubular tyres Rims are 22, 24 or 26 inches, fitted with tubulars. Smaller wheels turn more sharply and keep the bike low.
Not a cheap thing A cycle-ball bike costs roughly 1,500 to 2,800 euros. It is a piece of sports equipment for one single discipline, built in small numbers.

05

Not only two-a-side

The best-known form is two-a-side cycle-ball, the one this page has described so far. There is also five-a-side: five players per team on a handball court, two halves of 15 minutes. A few rules differ — at most three players of a team may be inside the goal area at once, a player who touches the floor only has to move four metres away from the ball, and the penalty is taken from seven metres rather than four.

And finally there is six-a-side grass cycle-ball, played outdoors on grass in summer, with six players a side.

06

Where the sport came from

The origin is well documented — and reportedly begins with a dog.

14 September 1883 — Rochester, USA

Nick Kaufmann, a German-American trick cyclist, and his colleague John Featherly give the first public demonstration, riding American Star high-wheelers. The idea is said to have come to Kaufmann when he nudged a stray dog aside with his front wheel.
10 March 1901 — Berlin

Paul and Otto Lüders bring the sport to Germany, from where it spreads through the cycling clubs.
1927 to 1929 — the first titles

European championships are held. World championships follow from 1930 and have been contested ever since.
1965 to 1988 — the Pospíšil brothers

Jindřich and Jan Pospíšil of Czechoslovakia win 20 world titles. Nobody in the sport has come close to that run since. Every title holder is in the list of all cycle-ball world champions since 1930.

In Germany the sport is organised by the Bund Deutscher Radfahrer and the Rad- und Kraftfahrerbund Solidarität. It is played in clubs and leagues — mostly in ordinary sports halls, often in front of modest crowds, and almost always faster than it looks at first glance.

07

Try cycle-ball yourself

Best done in a hall near you. Until then there are two small browser games here — and a real one currently in the works.

Penalty shootout

Twenty four-metre penalties against a keeper. Nothing to install, with a public leaderboard.

Play now

Bikeball Jump

An endless run on the cycle-ball bike: collect balls, jump obstacles, keep going.