“A match may not start or continue if either team has fewer than seven players.” IFAB Laws of the GameĪny team can forfeit a soccer game. What you would see, however, is how a team could forfeit a game.įor example, in Law 3 of the “Laws of the Game” the rules state that: You can have a look at the official laws of soccer here or check out my easy-to-understand guide to the rules of soccer.Īs you look through the rules of soccer, you will notice that the rules don’t specifically address a team’s decision to forfeit a game. Forfeiting a Soccer Game – the RulesįIFA (the governing body of world soccer) decides on the rules of soccer in cooperation with the International Football Association Board (IFAB).

I’ll share each of these examples with you, but first, let’s quickly look at what the rules of soccer say when it comes to forfeiting a game. Although it is rare, there are several occasions where a team has decided that the best move for them would be to forfeit their next soccer game.Īs I was looking into this, I discovered three examples of teams forfeiting their next game – all with various reasons for choosing to forfeit the game. Soccer teams have forfeited games in the past.

But recently, I realized I didn’t know if any soccer team had taken this last resort and forfeited a game. Forfeiting a soccer game would be the last resort for any team competing in a competition.

What happend to soccer