Soccer Rules for New Players and Parents — the 17 Laws in Plain English
The whole rule book, one law at a time, in language you can use on the sideline — plus the places American youth, high school and college soccer differ.
Soccer has seventeen Laws. Not rules — Laws, capital L, written by a body called the IFAB and used by every competition on earth. The whole book is shorter than the rule book of almost any American sport, and you can get the useful parts in ten minutes.
Here they are in order, with the bits that actually come up on a Saturday morning.
Law 1 — The field of play
Rectangular, grass or artificial turf, with a huge permitted size range: 100–130 yards long by 50–100 yards wide. The goal is 8 yards wide and 8 feet high, the penalty area extends 18 yards from each post and 18 yards into the field, and the penalty mark is 12 yards out.
Youth soccer shrinks all of this. See field, goal and ball sizes by age.
Law 2 — The ball
A size 5 ball is 27–28 inches around and weighs 14–16 ounces at kick-off. Younger age groups use size 4 and size 3.
Law 3 — The players
Eleven a side, one of whom is the goalkeeper. A match cannot continue if either team has fewer than seven players — that is the Law's floor, and it is why a team with three red cards goes home.
Substitutions are set by the competition, not by the Laws: professional leagues allow five in three windows, your rec league probably allows unlimited substitutions at any stoppage. Ask your league.
Law 4 — Players' equipment
Shirt, shorts, socks, shin guards and footwear. The shin guards must be covered by the socks and made of a suitable material offering reasonable protection.
Nothing dangerous. Jewellery comes off — all of it, including rings taped over, because tape does not stop a ring breaking a finger. The two goalkeepers must be distinguishable from each other, from both outfield teams and from the officials.
Which cleats to buy for which surface is its own subject: see choosing cleats and shin guards.
Law 5 — The referee
The referee enforces the Laws and their decisions on facts connected with play are final. There is no appeal to the sideline. A referee may play advantage — letting play continue when stopping it would punish the team that was fouled — and may come back to the foul if the advantage does not come off.
Referees can also stop the match for injury, outside interference, or weather, and can abandon it.
Law 6 — The other match officials
Assistant referees (the ones with flags) signal offside, which team gets the throw-in, and offences they can see better than the referee can. In youth soccer these are often club volunteers with a limited brief — that is normal, and it is the referee who decides.
Law 7 — The duration of the match
Two equal halves of 45 minutes in the adult game, with a half-time interval not exceeding 15 minutes. Youth matches are shorter, set by the competition.
The clock counts up and never stops. Instead the referee adds time at the end of each half for time lost: substitutions, injuries, time-wasting, cards, drinks and cooling breaks, video reviews, goal celebrations, and any other significant delay. The fourth official's board shows the minimum to be added — the referee can add more, and often does.
One neat detail: the referee must not fix a first-half timekeeping error by changing the length of the second half.
Law 8 — The start and restart of play
Kick-off starts each half and restarts play after a goal. The ball may be played in any direction, and you can score directly from a kick-off.
A drop ball restarts play when the referee stopped it for something other than an offence — an injury, a ball bursting, an outside object. It is dropped for one player of the team that last touched it, and everyone else stands 4 yards away.
Law 9 — The ball in and out of play
The ball is out of play only when the whole of the ball crosses the whole of the line, on the ground or in the air. A ball hanging over the line is still in. This is also how a goal works — the entire ball must cross the entire goal line.
The ball is still in play when it rebounds off a goalpost, crossbar, corner flag or a match official and stays on the field.
Law 10 — Determining the outcome of a match
A goal is scored when the whole ball crosses the whole goal line between the posts and under the bar, provided the attacking team has not committed an offence first.
Most league matches simply end in a draw. Knockout competitions may use extra time — two periods of not more than 15 minutes each — and then kicks from the penalty mark. See stoppage time, extra time and penalty shoot-outs explained for the full shoot-out procedure.
Law 11 — Offside
The one everyone argues about, and it has its own guide: the offside rule explained, with diagrams.
The short version: being in an offside position is not an offence; being in an offside position and getting involved is. Position is judged when a team-mate plays the ball, hands and arms do not count, level is onside, and there is no offside from a goal kick, a throw-in or a corner kick.
Law 12 — Fouls and misconduct
Direct free kick offences are the physical ones, when done carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force: charging, jumping at, kicking, pushing, striking, tackling, tripping — or attempting any of those — plus holding, impeding with contact, biting, spitting and throwing something at the ball or a person. A direct free kick inside your own penalty area becomes a penalty kick.
Handball is the other direct-free-kick offence, and it is narrower than the sideline believes. It is an offence when a player deliberately moves a hand or arm towards the ball, or when the arm's position makes the body unnaturally bigger for that situation. It is also an offence to score directly with the hand or arm, or immediately after the ball has touched it, even accidentally. A ball that hits an arm tucked in at the player's side, in a position natural to what they were doing, is usually not handball.
Indirect free kick offences include playing in a dangerous manner (a high boot near someone's head, a header at boot height), impeding without contact, dissent and offensive language, stopping the goalkeeper releasing the ball, and the deliberate trick of flicking the ball up to your own keeper's hands.
Yellow card (caution): unsporting behaviour, dissent, persistent offences, delaying the restart, failing to retreat the required distance, entering or leaving the field without permission.
Red card (sending off): serious foul play, violent conduct, biting or spitting, offensive or insulting language, denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity — by handball, or by a foul — and a second caution.
Law 13 — Free kicks
Direct free kicks can score without touching anyone else; indirect ones cannot, and the referee keeps an arm up until a second player touches the ball. Opponents must be at least 10 yards away — and when three or more defenders form a wall, attackers must stay a yard clear of it.
Law 14 — The penalty kick
From the penalty mark, 12 yards out, with everyone except the kicker and the goalkeeper outside the area, outside the arc and behind the ball. The goalkeeper must have at least part of one foot on or in line with the goal line when the ball is kicked, and may not be touching the posts, bar or net.
The kicker may not kick it twice before someone else touches it — which is why a penalty rebounding off the post back to the taker is a free kick to the defence if he scores from it.
Law 15 — The throw-in
Both feet on or behind the touchline and on the ground, the ball delivered with both hands from behind and over the head, facing the field. You cannot score directly from a throw-in, and you cannot be offside from one.
The single most common youth infringement is a foot lifting, and the second is the ball coming from the side of the head rather than over it.
Law 16 — The goal kick
Awarded when the attacking team puts the ball over the goal line. Taken from anywhere in the goal area, and — a change that reshaped modern soccer — the ball is in play as soon as it is kicked, so a defender can receive it inside the penalty area. Opponents must be outside the area until then.
In 7v7 American youth soccer the build-out line pushes the whole opposing team 14 yards back for a goal kick.
Law 17 — The corner kick
Awarded when the defending team puts it over their own goal line. Taken from inside the corner arc, opponents 10 yards away, the corner flag stays in the ground. You can score directly from a corner, and you cannot be offside from one.
Where American soccer differs
The Laws are the foundation, but three American competitions run their own rule books on top of them.
High school soccer in most states plays under NFHS rules, not the IFAB Laws. The best-known differences are a visible clock that stops, and substitution rules that let players re-enter — both closer to other American high school sports than to soccer elsewhere.
College soccer plays under NCAA rules, which have historically differed on substitutions and timing too.
Youth club soccer generally uses the IFAB Laws with the small-sided modifications described above.
If you are officiating or coaching, the practical advice is simple: find out which rule book your competition uses before the season, not during an argument. And if you fancy learning the Laws properly, the fastest way is to become a referee — the entry course is short, it pays, and you will never watch a game the same way again.