This study aimed to develop a cognitive scale and demonstrate cognition of team tactics for football players. The study used a questionnaire, answered by 1,256 male football players. The data collected was subjected to exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis by structural equation modeling. The results showed that football playersʼ cognition of team tactics comprised seven factors: orientation as dependence on ability, mastery, difficulty, understanding the strategy, emphasis on the result, importance of training and dependence on the coach. The result of the confirmatory factor analysis showed a sufficient construct validity of the model, which comprised 21 items within the seven factors. The results also showed the relative importance of the football playersʼ cognitive factors, in descending order: mastery, dependence on the coach, importance of training, equally understanding the strategy, difficulty, dependence on ability and emphasis on the result. The suggestions for coaching were as follows:
1. Junior high school and high school football players found it more difficult to understand team tactics than college football players.
2. Football players who did not think about using team tactics showed a lower cognition for the factor of orientation as mastery and understanding the strategy than those players who thought about using it.
3. Football players who were substitutes found it more difficult to understand team tactics than regular football players.