Canadian football is a form of
gridiron football played in
Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed
prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area (
end zone). In Canada, the term "
football" may refer to Canadian football and
American football collectively, or to either sport specifically, depending on context. The two sports have shared origins and are closely related but have
significant differences. In particular, Canadian football has 12 players on the field per team rather than 11; the field is roughly 10 yards wider, and 10 yards longer between end-zones that are themselves 10 yards deeper; and a team has only three
downs to gain 10 yards, which results in less offensive rushing than in the American game. In the Canadian game all players on the defending team, when a down begins, must be at least 1 yard from the line of scrimmage. (The American game has a similar "
neutral zone" but it is only the length of the football.)