Over the years, rules and regulations have been brought in to encourage fair play to ensure football is a safe and enjoyable sport for all participants.
While many of these regulations have been around for a while, we’ve found that some teams and players can still be surprised when they break rules they are unaware of.
To avoid this, we've listed some of the important regulations below that you should know about before you step on the field.
Point Deductions (foul play) & Suspensions
To discourage excessive foul play, there are several events that lead to point deductions and suspensions:
- If five players in a team receive a card in a single match, the team will lose three premiership points
- If a team receives three red cards during the season, they will lose one premiership point (and one point for every red card onwards)
- Any player who receives a red card will serve a suspension of at least one match
- Any player who receives five yellow cards in a season will serve a one match suspension
IMPORTANT: you cannot take part in any other match until your suspension has been served. For example, if you receive a red card in an AA4 match at 1pm, you cannot then “play-up” for AA1 at 3pm
Sin Bin
- If you receive a yellow card for dissent, you will receive a temporary dismissal. This means you will be "sin-binned" on the sidelines and your team will play with one less player until your sin-bin time is up
- A temporary dismissal lasts five minutes for U13s-U17s and ten minutes for all other age groups
- You can click here to read more about the temporary dismissal law.
Playing-Up
Players are allowed to “play-up” in higher division and age groups, but please take the time to be aware of the rules as they differ between senior and youth teams.
- Before someone "plays-up" ensure you review the rules to ensure they are eligible
- Be aware of limits including how many borrowed players you can use per game, and how many games a player is allowed to play up
- Ensure you know the rules before you play-up. No leniency is given for misinterpreting or not understanding the rules
Other important information
- To be eligible for finals, a player must have played a minimum of three matches for the team
- Placings on the league table are decided by head-to-head, not by goal difference
CLICK HERE TO READ FOOTBALL CANTERBURY'S RULES OF ASSOCIATION
Image credit: Photographed with Love
