Rules for an amateur tournament

You do not write the rules to look official. You write them for one specific minute: when two teams are level on points and both are certain they are through. If the rule exists, you read it out. If it does not, you become the person who decided, whichever way you decide.

Below are the sections without which a rulebook does not work, with wording you can use as is. One page in the group chat is enough.

1. Points

The standard, and there is rarely a reason to depart from it: three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat. The scale rewards playing to win, because two draws are worth less than a win and a defeat.

An alternative for a one-day event where you would rather avoid draws: penalties after a level score, two points for winning the shoot-out and one for losing it. Every match ends with a winner and the table runs into ties less often.

2. Tie-breaking

The most important clause in the rulebook and the one most often left out. Criteria are applied strictly in order: you move to the next one only while the previous one leaves teams level.

3. Player registration

Registration is not bureaucracy. It exists so that no player nobody saw in the group stage turns up in the opposition's semi-final.

• Squads are submitted before a team's first match, with full names.
• A squad cap of twelve to fifteen players is normal for five-a-side.
• A player represents one team only for the whole tournament.
• Late additions are allowed up to a specific round. Name the round.
• Only registered players may play. Breaking this is a forfeit.

At friendly tournaments the one-player-one-team rule is usually broken with the best intentions: somebody is short and a friend from another team helps out. Decide before the tournament and write it down, rather than debating it when the match should already have kicked off.

4. No-shows and forfeits

One clause covers most cases: a team that has not taken the pitch within ten minutes of the scheduled time forfeits the match 0-3.

• Set a minimum to start a match, normally four players in five-a-side. Fewer is a forfeit.
• The forfeit score is fixed and counts towards goal difference.
• A team withdrawing mid-tournament needs its own clause: either its results are annulled entirely or they stand. Pick one and write it.
• Entry fees are not refunded on withdrawal, because the pitch is already paid for.

5. Discipline

An amateur tournament does not need a ten-page disciplinary code, but it does need three lines.

• A red card means off for the rest of the match and a one-match ban.
• Two yellows in different matches means a one-match ban.
• Fighting means expulsion from the tournament with no refund.

And one clause worth all the others: the referee's decisions on the pitch are final. Without it every contested moment turns into a committee meeting.

6. Match format

• Length: two fifteen-minute halves, or a single twenty-minute period, which saves time on changeovers.
• Substitutions: rolling, without stopping play.
• Pitch size and numbers: five-a-side with a goalkeeper is the most common indoor format.
• Balls: who provides them and what size.
• Kit: bibs are compulsory when colours clash.

A short template

The minimum rulebook that settles nine disputes out of ten. Copy it, put in your own numbers, send it to the chat before the first match.

1. Format: five-a-side with a goalkeeper, two fifteen-minute halves, rolling substitutions.
2. Points: three for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat.
3. If level: head-to-head, goal difference, goals scored, number of wins, coin toss.
4. Squads submitted before the first match, up to twelve players, one team per player.
5. No-show or fewer than four players ten minutes after kick-off is a 0-3 forfeit.
6. A red card means missing the next match.
7. The referee's decisions are final.
8. Entry fees are paid before the tournament and are not refunded on withdrawal.