A friendly match is generally a match where there is no competitive value of any kind, and most times quality of play is valued over the result. However, given the highly competitive nature of professional sports (and usually the lack of punishment from officiating bodies afterwards), "friendly" matches end up being less an example of fair play as the name suggests.
Football (Soccer)
In Football, friendly matches (friendlies) are usually pre-season games where there are no trophies or titles to be awarded and some rules changed (such as unlimited substitutions and no cards). Although many of the teams nowadays rather compete in weekend quadrangular tournaments (such as the Teresa Herrera Trophy), friendly matches are still used for team presentations or included in transfer deals between the teams.
Today, the term "friendly match" is used in connection with international matches, but has been replaced in most occasions by "preparation match" (except celebration games, such as the France-Brazil played in 2004 by the occasion of the 100th birthday of FIFA). Players can be booked in international friendlies, and can be suspended from future international matches based on red cards or accumulated yellows in a specified period. FIFA has recently made its recommendation that substitutions be limited to six per match mandatory in international friendlies.
Friendlymatches are those which are not part of a tournament or cup competition.
Thus, for example, we have classed as minor tournament/cup matches rather than friendlymatches all those which England played for the Rous Cup because, although it involved only a single match against Scotland the first two times it was contested, England competed for that cup regularly from 1985 to 1989.
Friendlymatches, however, are far from meaningless; they continue to carry great value for the national side.
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