BDLondon Soccer Tournament 2025 – Rules

  1. Teams: There will be four teams (London Titans, London Strikers, Real Samba, Old School) in the tournament. Each team shall have a designated captain and on top of that managers, ranging 2-3.
    1. Teams will be formed through an auction where FOUR team captains and managers will bid for players on behalf of their respective team. The bidders shall follow the auction rules appeared in document ‘Auction rule 2025’.
  • Rules of Play: The rules and regulations of the games will be followed according to the document “BDLondon Soccer Tournament Rules, 2024” document (see page #3) and “Amendments in Soccer Tournament 2025” (see page #4)
    • However, any issue that cannot be solved according to this document, concerning team captains and or managers will discuss with match referee shall attempts to resolve it at the field.
      • If no agreement is reached, the issue will be resolved by the technical committee described in point 10.
  • Number of Players: Ideally, this will be 7-player game where, unlike FIFA rules, one player may be interchanged multiple times.
    • It is the responsibility of the team captain and managers to bring their players in time.
  • Match duration: Each match will have 60 minutes of duration; there will be 10 minutes break for half time.
    •  Referees are supposed to add extra time to make up lost time incurred due to injury or any other event.
    • Committee may re-adjust the match time upon discussing concerning captains to address unavoidable reasons such as a khai-dai program to be followed, bad weather, and serious injury. 
  • Group Round: Each team will play 3 matches between each other in the group round. So there will be actually 6 matches in group round.
    • In group round, a team will get three points for win, one point for draw, and zero point for loss.
    • In any stage of the play, if any team refuses to continue playing the match and it’s never re-arranged, opposite team will be declared the winner.
    • In case of complete postponed match which is never re-arranged, the match will be counted as draw and both the teams will enjoy one group point.
  • Selection of finalists:
    • At the end of group round, the two teams with superior group points will play for the finale.
      • If group points of two or three teams become same at the end of group round, the following rules will be tried chronologically until there is a decision.
        1. Superior goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
        2. Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned.
        3. Superior goal differences in the matches among the teams in question
        4. Higher number of goal scored in the matches among the teams in question,
        5. Head to head will be considered if there are two teams in question; (in case of three teams head to head will make no result)
        6. Highest number of goals scored in one match in the entire group round.
        7. Highest number of goals scored in one match in the matches among the team in question.
        8. 5-players of each team in question will go for FIFA penalty shoot out process.
  • Final Match:  Best two teams will play for the one and only finale.
    • Final match will be 60 minutes. There will be 10 minutes half-time.
    • 20 minutes extra play will be offered if there is no result during the first 60 minutes. If extra time play is again result-less, there will be a penalty shoot out until there is a decision.
  • Postponed match:
    •  If the referee has to postpone a match at midway for unavoidable reason, the rest of the match can be arranged later on the same day or another day upon discussing with the captains, technical committee and organizing committee.
    • Postponing a scheduled match needs a prior (say before 5:00 PM of match day) approval from organizing and technical committee by explaining reasons; otherwise, it will result in a walk-over match (unless all the organizing committee, technical committee and the opposite captain(s) show their generosity to re-arrange the match in another day).
  • Fixture: Match will be played according to the fixture given prior to the tournament.
    • Fixture will be created based on the availability of players.
    • If any match has to be postponed due to unavoidable conditions e.g., weather condition, serious shortages of players, it will be rescheduled later without impacting the rest of the fixture. In other words, bodily shift rule will not be followed. The tournament organizing committee will always have the upper hand in re-scheduling decision and they will discuss with the captains and technical committee.
  1. Technical committee: Technical committee consists of four static members and one or two dynamic members:
    1. four static member are comprised of at least one player (other than captain) from each team,
    1. match referee of the concerned match,
    1. Optional member:  One senior observer of concerned match.
    1. The technical committee will work in democratic process.
    1. Technical committee always has the rights to take final decisions if any issues could not be resolved following the above rules.
  1. Organizing committee: They are mainly involved for logistic support to organize the tournament from the beginning, and some members are common from technical committee.

N.B. If and only any extreme scenario develops that is interrupting to run tournament, in that case the captain and or managers of individual team shall reach out to the technical committee and organizing committee, and they will find out the suitable solutions with the help of captains and managers, and for the final decision the organizing committee will have the upper hand than technical committee.

BDLondon Soccer Tournament Rules, 2024

  1. The FIFA offside rule is not currently applicable, but it will be reinstated if all concerned parties consent to its return.
  2. Penalties are applicable within the marked boundary as per FIFA rules.
  3. Sliding tackles are prohibited to prevent severe injuries. If a player commits a sliding tackle, the referee will send him/them off the field for 10 minutes. After this period, the player(s) may return to the field as a regular player.
  4. Corner kicks and throw-in will be conducted according to FIFA rules.
  5. One main referee and 1-2 assistant referees will conduct each match. All decisions made by the referees during the game must be accepted by the teams participating in that match.

Amendments in Soccer Tournament 2025

Refereeing Guidelines

  • A professional referee will be hired to conduct the final match.
  • For all other matches, referees will be selected from players of non-competing teams. The captains and managers of the teams playing the match will agree on who will referee.

A few updates have been made to the existing tournament rules:

  • Managers are now allowed to participate as players.

Player shortage rules:

  • If one team is short by one player, both teams will play with one fewer player.
  • If one team is short by two players, they will play with one fewer than the full team.

Examples:

  • Team A has 6 players, Team B has 7 → both teams play with 6.
  • Team A has 5 players, Team B has 7 → Team A plays with 5, Team B plays with 6.

Man of the Match (MOM):

  • Selected from the winning team.
  • Decided by the winning captain, opposing captain, and referee.

Golden Boot:

  • Awarded to the highest goal scorer.
  • Penalty goals are included, but tie-breaker penalties do not count.

Man of the Tournament:

  1. Priority is given to the player with the most MOM awards.
  2. If tied, the player with the most goals is considered.
  3. If still tied, the award goes to a player from the champion team.
  4. If still tied among multiple players, they will all share the title.

Yellow/Red Card:

  • A player with red card will be out of the field for 10 minutes
  • If a player get yellow card twice in the same match will get Red card