Which football rules apply to you on match day?

Under Law 3, a team plays with a maximum of 11 players, one of them the goalkeeper, and a match may not start or continue if either side has fewer than seven.

If you are six at kick-off time, the referee will not start. If injuries or red cards take you down to six during the match, play stops at the next restart and the match is over. What happens to the result is decided by the competition rules, covered further down.

Youth football plays with smaller teams, and the Laws allow it. The general modifications let national associations change the number of players for youth, veterans, disability and grassroots matches. In the 2026/27 rules of the Kujawsko-Pomorski FA in Poland, for example, under-13s play 9 a side, under-11s 7 (or 6 on a small pitch) and under-9s 5.

One more rule for latecomers. Where the competition requires the team list before kick-off, a player who arrives late can join in only if their name is on it.

It depends on the type of match, and the Laws give three answers.

• Official competitions: up to five substitutes, with the exact number set by FIFA, the confederation or the national association. Youth football is the exception: there the association sets the maximum, and it can be higher (the Kujawsko-Pomorski FA allows 9 for juniors in its I and II leagues). In top-division first teams and senior internationals using five, each team gets three substitution opportunities plus half-time.
• All other matches: the teams may agree a higher number, provided they tell the referee before the match. With no agreement, each team may use a maximum of six.
• Your league's own number: amateur leagues often set their own. The Kujawsko-Pomorski FA allows 5 in the IV liga (Poland's fifth tier) and 7 in the lower regional leagues, made at half-time or in at most three other stoppages.

Substitutes have to be named to the referee before kick-off. A player who was not named cannot come on later, however useful they would be.

The substitute enters only during a stoppage, at the halfway line, after the replaced player has left and after the referee's signal.

Return substitutions (rolling subs) are allowed only in youth, veterans, disability and grassroots football, and only with the approval of the national association, confederation or FIFA. In that case a player who went off may come back on later by replacing a team-mate, using the normal substitution procedure. In a senior league match without that permission, once you are off, you are off.

The 10-second rule is new in the 2026/27 Laws. Once the substitution board is shown, or the referee signals where there is no board, the player coming off must leave within ten seconds at the nearest point of the boundary line. The referee may count down the last five seconds with a raised hand.

Take longer and your team pays for it. The substitute may not enter, play restarts without them, and the substitution cannot be cancelled. The new player may come on only at the first stoppage after one minute has passed. For that minute your team plays a player short.

A yellow card is a caution. A red card is a sending-off, and a player sent off after kick-off cannot be replaced, so the team plays the rest of the match a player down.

Law 12 lists receiving a second caution in the same match among the sending-off offences. Two yellows make a red, whatever the first one was for.

The captain may carry one extra duty. Competitions can adopt the IFAB “only the captain” guidelines. Where they do, only one player per team, usually the captain, may approach the referee after a major incident, and others who surround the referee may be cautioned. In youth, veterans, disability and grassroots football the referee can also create a 4-metre captain-only zone, and a player other than the captain who enters it should be cautioned for dissent by action. If several players from one team enter, at least one of them must be cautioned.

A red card shown before kick-off works differently. If a player named on the team list is sent off before the start, a named substitute can take their place, and the team keeps its full number of substitutions.

A temporary dismissal (sin bin) replaces some or all yellow cards with a spell off the pitch. The Laws allow it only in youth, veterans, disability and grassroots competitions, with approval from the national association. Check the competition rules: without them, there are no sin bins.

The referee shows a yellow card and points with both arms to the technical area. The length is the same for every offence and should be 10 to 15% of the total playing time, for example 10 minutes in a 90-minute match. You return when the ball is next out of play, with the referee's permission.

Competitions choose one of two systems.

• System A: every caution is a sin bin. A second caution means a second sin bin, after which the player takes no further part. A substitute may then replace them.
• System B: only listed offences, such as dissent or simulation, lead to the sin bin. Two cautions in the same match still mean a red card.

A yellow or red offence committed during a sin bin ends your match, with no replacement. Sin bins do not apply in a penalty shoot-out.

Some youth competitions run their own version. In younger age groups the Kujawsko-Pomorski FA uses 2-minute penalties: 2 minutes, 2 minutes, then exclusion.

The Laws of the Game stop at the final whistle. Suspensions for accumulated cards are set by each competition, and the IFAB guidelines leave it to competitions and national associations, even for counting sin bins towards a ban.

Ask the organizer these questions before the first match.

• How many yellow cards earn a one-match ban?
• How many matches does a straight red cost?
• Does a red from two yellows count as a red, or as two yellows?
• Are yellow cards wiped after the group stage?

If the answer is not in the rules, ask for it in writing before the first card turns into an argument at the organizer's desk.

Law 4 lists the compulsory equipment: a shirt with sleeves, shorts, socks, shin guards and footwear. The shin guards must be of a suitable material and size and covered by the socks, and the player is responsible for that.

Lose a boot or a shin guard by accident and you must replace it no later than the next time the ball goes out of play. Dangerous items must be removed. Taping them over is not allowed, and a player who refuses must be cautioned. Since 2026/27 other accessories, jewellery included, are permitted if they are not dangerous and are safely and securely covered.

The Laws do not cover ID, so the competition rules do. The Kujawsko-Pomorski FA accepts a photo ID card, passport, driving licence or military book, and for minors a school ID or cycling card with a current photo. A school ID may also be shown in the mObywatel app.

Age limits for youth categories are set by the associations, so check which birth years your tournament accepts before you put a player on the list.

A match cannot start or continue with fewer than seven players. An addition to Laws 3 and 7 approved by the IFAB on 28 April 2026 says that a team responsible for the match not continuing, or being abandoned, because it has fewer than seven players will in principle forfeit it, subject to the competition rules.

The competition rules set the details. FIFA, for example, declared a match forfeited 3-0 in 2025 because South Africa had fielded an ineligible player. Your league may use 3-0 or another score, deduct points or remove a team after repeated no-shows. Read that part of the rules before the season.

An abandoned match for any other reason follows Law 7: it is replayed unless the competition rules or the organizer decide otherwise.

The organizer runs the competition. As a player you mostly see the results.

• Table and bracket. Football runs as a club tournament (round robin, knockout, or groups plus knockout) or as a league. The table and bracket update once a result is confirmed.
• Top scorers, assists and cards. These lists fill up only when whoever logs a goal or card assigns it to a player. Goals entered without a name count in the score, not in the scorers' list.
• Suspended players. In a league, the organizer can turn on automatic card bans: 2 to 5 yellows per ban, 1 to 3 matches per red, with a red from two yellows counted once. A ban is served in the team's next confirmed match. The public Stats tab then shows a Suspended list, and a suspended player is flagged on the team sheet when a scoreboard starts. The flag does not block anyone from being picked.
• Reporting results. By default the organizer enters results, also from the referee's scoreboard. If the organizer of a club tournament lets teams report scores, one side enters the result and the other confirms it, but only in group and round-robin matches. In a league, only the organizer enters results. Knockout, consolation and third-place matches are closed by the organizer.
• Walkovers count as 3-0 by default, and the organizer can change that score.

The football live scoreboard records goals, yellow and red cards (a second yellow turns red on its own), added time, extra time and the penalty shoot-out. It does not log substitutions or sin bins. In a sin-bin competition the operator records the yellow card and the referee times the dismissal. More on the officials' side in the football referee guide and on the scoring in how football scoring works.