Soccer Rules


The official soccer rules are called the “Laws of the Game” and are revised annually by the world soccer governing body named FIFA (pronounced “FEE’ fuh”). Most youth leagues, women’s leagues and adult recreational leagues modify the rules. The modifications that are made are usually to make matches more fun (e.g., smaller fields), safer (e.g., no slide tackling), more evenly matched or to promote a better learning environment (for example, by playing “small sided”). Typical adjustments are field sizes, game lengths, number of players per team, the number and frequency of substitutions, “offside” is sometimes not called, and slide tackling is sometimes not allowed. Field sizes, ball sizes, length of games & rules vary by age group. The FIFA rules do not require separate teams for girls and boys, but many soccer clubs and associations have separate leagues for boys and girls. Discuss the rule variations with an official of your league.

Click this link Soccer Rules for a list of over 70 links to soccer rules such as soccer fouls, soccer cards, field size, dangerous play, corner kick, soccer field diagram, goal kick, kick off, hand ball, soccer offside rule, and many more.

Soccer Rules is another source of information.

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