Tournament Rules

The 2025 Turkey Cup will use the official Fifa rules with the following exceptions:

Roster

Every team must be registered online with all players registered to the team as well.
Adult Division Age: Players must be 19 years of age or older as of November 8th, 2025
Youth Division Age: Players must be 14 years to 18 years old as of November 8th, 2025.
Teams may have no more than 7 players on their roster.
Youth Division teams must have one non-player head coach (21+ years old) listed as a volunteer on their team.
Adult Division teams must have one player indicated as head coach and one player listed as a volunteer referee.

Game Play

Field Size: 35/45 yards wide x 55/65 yards long
Ball Size: 5
4 field players and 1 goalie.
Game Length: 17 Min Halves with a 5 Min Half Time
All players must wear shin guards, or will not be allowed to play.
All players must wear jerseys/shirts during play. If both teams are wearing the same color, the home team must change.
Players wearing protective casts must receive written approval by the League & Tournament director. If the referee on the field of play deems a player’s protective cast is unsafe in any way, the player will not be allowed to play until the Tournament director allows the player to play.
No jewelry will be allowed, including earrings of any type, rope necklaces and bracelets. The only exception will be players wearing medical bracelets.
Substitution: Substitutions can be made on the fly.

Referees/Timing:

There will be no abuse of the referees tolerated, verbal or otherwise. Any indication of such behavior by a coach or parent will result in immediate removal from the tournament site. No abuse of any player, coach or referee will be tolerated. Please keep all comments (cheering) positive.
The first whistle starts the clock on all fields & game ending whistle ends games on all fields.
Teams must be ready to enter the field at least 5 minutes prior to scheduled game time.

Kick Offs / Kick Ins / Direct and Indirect Kicks / Goal Kicks / Penalty Kicks:

Kick Offs
- May be kicked in any direction. You cannot score directly from a kick off (ball must be 100% over the mid-line to be considered on the offensive half of the field). The kick off is an indirect kick.
Kick-ins
- The ball shall be kicked into play from the sideline, rather than thrown in. The ball is considered in play when the ball is touched and changes position. This is an indirect kick, and a goal cannot be scored from this kick.
Direct and in-direct kicks
- All dead-ball kicks (kick-ins, kick-offs, free kicks) are indirect with the exception of corner kicks, hand balls, and penalty kicks. Indirect kicks must only change position before the ball will be considered in play. If a free kick is awarded within five yards of the opposing goal line, the ball will be moved back to five yards from the line. It is the referee’s discretion where the ball will be placed.
Goal kicks
- May be taken from any point of the goal box. All Goal Kicks are indirect kicks.
Penalty kicks
- Shall be awarded if, in the referee’s opinion, a scoring opportunity was nullified by an infraction (the infraction does not automatically result in a red card). Penalty kicks are DIRECT kicks taken from 3 yards outside the box in the center of the goal.
Five-Yard Rule
- In all dead-ball situations, defending players must stand at least five yards away from the ball. If the defensive player’s goal is closer than five yards, the ball shall be played five yards from the goal line in line with the direction of play prior to the penalty.
Goal Scoring
- A goal may only be scored from a touch (offensive or defensive) within the team’s offensive half on the field. The ball must be completely on the offensive half of the field, and cannot be touching the mid-line (Example: kick-off). If a player in their defensive half kicks the ball across the midline and the ball hits another player (offensive or defensive) in their offensive half, and the ball goes in the goal, a goal will be awarded. If a ball is kicked from the defensive half and is not touched before the ball rests in the goal, a goal kick is awarded to the defensive team. A goal cannot be scored from an indirect kick, such as a kick-in from out-of-bounds. See below for “Plane of the Goal / Net Interference.”
Goal Keepers / Off-sides / Slide Tackling / Hand Ball Clarification:
- Goal keepers are restricted to using their hands only inside the penalty box and no slide tackling is allowed. If a player is sliding for the ball, contact with any player(s) from the other team is NOT ALLOWED. If a player slides and contact is initiated, a free kick shall be awarded. This does not prevent players from sliding to stop/intercept a ball where contact is not initiated during the slide. Example: a player may slide to save a ball from going out-of-bounds.
Hand Ball Clarification
- Deliberate handling of the ball that denies a team of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity will result in the following: (1) A penalty kick (at the discretion of the referee) (2) A yellow or red card given to the player committing the hand ball (at the discretion of the referee).

Tournament Scoring and Standings:

Win = 3 points
Tie = 1 point
Loss = 0 point

Head-to-head co
Goal differential - Max Goal differential will be MAX 5
Goals scored
Goals against
Shoot-out

Tie Breakers. If any team has the same point total, the following will be used as a tiebreaker, in order:

Head-to-head competition (not used if more than 2 teams are tied).
Goals scored minus goals allowed (maximum of 5 goal differential per game, example - a score of 9-1 would be calculated as 6-1).
Most goals scored.
Fewest goals allowed.
Kicks from the mark.

In the event that Kicks From the Mark must be used to determine a winner, the format will be as follows:

Each team will select five (5) players to kick. Only players on the field at the conclusion of the game may be selected to kick;
Teams will alternate (the first team to kick will be determined by the referee's coin toss)
If the score remains tied after five (5) kicks, the teams will alternate kicks with the remaining players that were on the field at the end of play, one at a time, until a winner is determined;
A team goalkeeper can be changed with the referee's permission after each shot.

Winning a Bracket

$1000 prize for winning a bracket is based on a bracket of at least 6 teams or more.
Should a bracket contain less than 6 teams the prize awarded will be based on a percentage (33%) of the entry fees for all teams in that bracket.
- Example: In a bracket with only 4 teams, the 1st place team would win $660.