General Information
a. All players, coaches, and family members are expected to behave within the spirit of the game. The tournament committee has the right to issue punishments as they see fit.
b. All decisions and disciplinary actions issued by referees are final and cannot be disputed. Game score and cards given will be recorded on score sheets by the referees. They will then pass the scoresheets onto tournament officials. Referees will not need to track down tournament officials, a representative will come to the referee for retrieval.
c. All coaches, players, families, and referees participating in this event acknowledge they have read the document below and will adhere to all rules and regulations.
Abusive/Inappropriate Behavior
a. While at the fields, any coach, parent, team official, player or spectator threatening violence or engaging in verbal abuse will be subject to ejection from the tournament and the team may be removed from the tournament as well if appropriate. This type of behavior is not acceptable at this event and it will not be tolerated.
b. Please refer to the document below for the disciplinary procedures.
Group Play and Playoffs
a. The Philadelphia Union 7v7 Turf Cup is comprised of 7 age brackets, U8-U14, and two divisions per age bracket, elite and travel, for both the boys’ and girls’ tournament (with numbers permitting). Teams will compete in group play to determine which team will place first. The team with the highest overall record will be crowned champions of their division.
b. In divisions with 4 teams, each team will play all other teams in the group and the team with the most points after three games will be awarded first place.
c. The point system that will be used for group play is listed below:
- 3 points will be awarded to the winners of a match.
- 1 point will be awarded to teams that draw their match.
- 0 points will be awarded to a team that loses a match.
d. If there is tie in points after group play has finished, the following criteria will decide the higher seeded team. The following criteria is listed in descending order based on the order in which the higher seeded team will be decided.
- Head-to-Head Winner: The winner of the match played between the two teams tied on points.
- Goal Differential: This number of goals scored for minus the goals scored against. The team with the higher goal differential will be seeded higher.
- Number of Wins: The team with the higher number of wins will be seeded higher.
- Goals For: The team with the most goals scored for will be seeded higher.
- 5-Man Penalty Shootout: If teams are still tied after the criteria above, they will compete in a 5v5 penalty shootout.
Game Rules
a) All games will be played in a 7v7 format, 6 field players and 1 goalkeeper.
b) Each team is guaranteed 3 games.
c) Each game will be 40 minutes long. There will be no half time.
d) There will be 5 minutes of down time between each game.
e) Each game will run on the same clock. The clock will be displayed on the scoreboard. The clock will not stop for injuries or for teams that arrive late to their field.
f) Substitutions will be made on the fly and by the discretion of the referees.
g) There will be a build-out line for all age groups.
- Opponents may only pass the build-out line on a goal kick when the second player has touched the ball.
- Example: the keeper passes to a defender, once the defender touches the ball play is live.
