How Many Players Does a Soccer Team Need to Start a Game? Minimums and Forfeits

In 11v11 soccer the number is seven. The Laws of the Game say a match may not start or continue if either team has fewer than seven players, and one of them has to be the goalkeeper. In small-sided youth soccer the number is lower and comes from somewhere else: U.S. Soccer's national standards put the 7v7 minimum at five, and your league sets the rest — commonly three for 4v4 and six or seven for 9v9.

This is the question that arrives by text the night before a game, usually in flu season or over a holiday weekend: two kids are out, one is away, and the roster is suddenly thin. The answer comes from two or three documents. The Laws of the Game set the floor for the full-sided game. U.S. Soccer's small-sided standards cover players 12 and under. And your league's rulebook fills the gaps, decides how long the referee waits, and decides what the scoreline says afterwards.

How many players does a soccer team need to start a game?

Seven, in the 11-a-side game. Law 3 of the IFAB Laws of the Game is short about it:

"A match is played by two teams, each with a maximum of eleven players; one must be the goalkeeper. A match may not start or continue if either team has fewer than seven players."

Two details inside that sentence matter on a thin Saturday.

One of the seven must be a goalkeeper. If a goalkeeper is sent off or injured and no substitutes are left, one of the remaining players takes over the gloves and changes into a shirt that distinguishes them from everyone else. No team plays out a half with an empty net.

Seven is the floor for continuing, not just for kicking off. A team can legally start with eight, nine or ten, and a late arrival named on the team list before kick-off can join once play is underway, with the referee's permission, during a stoppage. The Laws count that player as a player making up the number, not a substitute — so the team does not lose a substitution for it.

Law 3 also names the consequence directly: "In principle, where a team is responsible for a match not continuing and/or being abandoned because it has fewer than seven players, the match will be forfeited by that team, subject to the relevant competition regulations." The Law sets the floor. The competition decides what the forfeit looks like.

What is the minimum number of players in 7v7 and 9v9?

Five for 7v7, under the national standard. U.S. Soccer's Player Development Initiatives — the document that sets field sizes, ball sizes and player numbers by age group for every US Soccer member organization — modifies Law 3 for 7v7 like this: "7v7 (6 field players and 1 goalkeeper). Game may not start or continue if there are less than 5 players on a team."

For the other formats the number comes from your league, and the figures are genuinely not uniform — not even between two leagues in the same state:

The 9v9 row is the warning. St. Louis Youth Soccer requires seven players for a 9v9 match; Allison Sportstown and Southwestern Youth Association require six. Six players at a U12 game is a forfeit in one league and a legal match in the other. Only the rulebook your club registered under can tell you which applies, and it is usually a PDF on the league's site under "playing rules."

Note SYA's wording too: the minimum applies to players on the field, not players at the park. Their rules pause the game whenever a team temporarily drops under six — someone off the field being treated for an injury, or sorting out equipment — and terminate it only when a team "can no longer field at least six."

How long does the referee wait for missing players?

Ten or fifteen minutes, depending on who wrote the rules.

• 15 minutes: SLYSA allows "a maximum 15-minute grace period." Monroe, North Carolina's rec rules instruct the referee to "delay the start of the game for 15 minutes to allow the team an opportunity for its players to arrive." Allison Sportstown also allows fifteen.
• 10 minutes: SYA requires each team to be ready with the minimum "within ten (10) minutes after the scheduled kickoff time." Arlington Soccer Association gives the same ten minutes "to allow a team to get up to the minimum number of players to start a game and avoid a forfeit."

So a car stuck in traffic is often genuinely worth waiting for. Note that the grace period usually comes out of the game rather than the schedule: SYA has the referee shorten both halves so the match still finishes on time, because the next game needs the field.

What happens if a team forfeits for not having enough players?

The game goes into the table as a loss, at a scoreline the league picks, often with a bill attached. SLYSA records a forfeit as a 2–0 win for the opponent, charges the forfeiting team $170 per game due the next business day, and may refuse entry the following season to any team forfeiting three or more matches. Allison Sportstown also records 2–0, with the same three-forfeit consequence. Monroe's rec rules award the opponent 3–0.

A forfeit is triggered by more than missing players. In SLYSA's list it happens when a team fails to attend, lacks minimum players, has no licensed coach, or refuses to play or abandons the match. A fully staffed team whose only carded coach is stuck at work is in the same position as a team with five players.

A forfeit is also an administrative result, not a ban on playing. Monroe's rules put it plainly: once the match is declared a forfeit, "the two head coaches may play the game anyway (merely for the enjoyment of the children), however the match results will still be recorded as a forfeit." Plenty of referees will stay and run it. The kids get their Saturday; the standings just do not care.

What if a team drops below the minimum during the game?

Then the match ends there, and how much of it had been played decides the result.

Players sent off cannot be replaced — Law 3 is explicit that a player sent off after the kick-off cannot be replaced, which is why a second red card hurts more than it looks. A team goes 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, and then the match cannot continue. Injuries with an empty bench do the same, more slowly. The Laws close one loophole on the way down: if a team is below seven because players deliberately walked off, the referee may play the advantage rather than stop immediately, but the match "must not resume after the ball has gone out of play" while the team is short.

Once a match is abandoned, the halfway mark usually settles it — the same convention that governs games called off for weather and field conditions. SLYSA treats a match as official after one half is completed, and Allison Sportstown says the same; Wisconsin's high school association, in its 2026-27 soccer adaptations, also makes a match official once at least one half has been played. Before halftime, expect a replay or a resumption from the point of stoppage; after it, expect the score to stand.

Can you borrow players to make the numbers?

Usually yes, and it is the fix most clubs actually use — but only through the front door. Leagues allow guest players within limits, and the limits are strict on paperwork. SLYSA allows up to six guest players for U11–U19 teams and three for U6–U10, each on the league's guest player form with a valid player pass, all from the same club and the same governing body (US Youth Soccer or US Club Soccer, never mixed). Allison Sportstown uses the same caps — six for the 9v9 and 11v11 age groups, three for 4v4 and 7v7 — plus a "no playing down" rule: a guest may play up a division or across, never down into a weaker one.

Shortcuts here are expensive. Playing someone who is not properly registered, or mixing governing bodies on one game card, turns a game you won into a forfeit you lost.

Does the other team have to take a player off?

No. Nothing in the Laws requires a full team to match a short one, and no referee can order it. Local goal-differential rules do a version of the same job: SYA lets the trailing team add an extra field player once it is four or more goals down, and Monroe requires the winning team to pull its goalkeeper at a six-goal differential, then one more player per further goal, down to five on the field.

So if your team is playing nine against eleven, ask the opposing coach before kick-off. Most will drop a player. None of them have to.

High school soccer runs on a different rulebook

US high school soccer is played under NFHS rules rather than the IFAB Laws, and the NFHS rules book is not published publicly — which is why the high school minimums quoted online are hard to verify and often contradict each other. What is public is each state association's adaptations, and those govern your child's game: Wisconsin's 2026-27 document, for instance, sets 40-minute halves with no regular-season overtime and ends a match after 60 minutes once the goal differential reaches eight. For a high school minimum, your state association's soccer manual is where the number lives.

What to do when you are a player short

Look the minimum up once at the start of the season and put the number in your phone — the format is not the minimum. Ask the club for a guest player early, because the form and the pass take longer than the drive to the field. Tell the opposing coach the night before, since they are far more willing to drop a player when it is not a surprise at kick-off. Go anyway if you are close; ten minutes of grace has saved a lot of games, and a forfeited match can still be played for the kids. And check that a carded coach will actually be there.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the minimum number of players for a soccer game?

Seven in the 11-a-side game, one of whom must be the goalkeeper. Law 3 of the IFAB Laws of the Game states that a match may not start or continue if either team has fewer than seven players. In US small-sided play the figure is lower: U.S. Soccer's standards set the 7v7 minimum at five, and leagues set the rest — commonly three for 4v4 and six or seven for 9v9.

Can you play a soccer game with 6 players?

Not in 11v11 — six is below the Law 3 minimum, so the match cannot start or continue and the team responsible is normally deemed to have forfeited. In 9v9 it depends on the league: Southwestern Youth Association and Allison Sportstown both set the 9v9 minimum at six, while St. Louis Youth Soccer requires seven.

What happens if a youth soccer team doesn't have enough players?

The referee waits out a grace period — ten minutes in some leagues, fifteen in others — then declares a forfeit. Leagues record the result at a fixed scoreline, commonly 2–0 or 3–0 to the opponent, and may add a forfeit fee and penalties for repeat offenders. Several leagues explicitly allow the two coaches to play the game anyway, with the forfeit still recorded.

How many players do you need to start a 7v7 game?

Five. U.S. Soccer's Player Development Initiatives set the 7v7 standard as six field players and a goalkeeper, and state that the "game may not start or continue if there are less than 5 players on a team." League rulebooks such as St. Louis Youth Soccer's and Allison Sportstown's use the same figure.

Can a team keep playing after two red cards?

Yes, down to the minimum. Players sent off after kick-off cannot be replaced, so an 11v11 team can absorb four send-offs and still be at seven; the fifth ends the match. A goalkeeper is always required, so if the keeper is sent off, an outfield player takes over in a distinguishing shirt.