Rules

Soccer officials are proud of the fact that there are only 17 rules of the game. The official laws of the game are adopted and published by the international governing body of the game, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Zurich, Switzerland, and they apply to every soccer game in the world. Click here for the FIFA home page, and click here to read and view the Laws of the Game.

On top of FIFA rules, each country adds its own modifications which amplify the 17 rules. The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) administers the game in the United States and is the governing body for all licensed referees. USSF publishes a number of referee manuals and referee instruction materials. Click here to access the USSF home page. All USSF licensed referees should have and wear a patch identifying them as such. If your referee isn't wearing an official patch, then he or she probably hasn't taken the certification course or let his license lapse.

Local organizations add regulations dealing with age groups, substitution policies, uniform requirements, ball sizes, length of matches, and so forth. For our area, both the regular and advanced (competitive) games' rules also come from:

1. The Colorado Soccer Association and Colorado Youth Soccer Association (CSYSA) has adopted extensive rules dealing with youth games. These include the length of the period of play, the size ball, the number of players on a team, and so forth. Click here to download or view the CSYSA rules in Adobe PDF format. If you don't have a PDF viewer installed, click here to get it. This is a very large file so be patient.
2. The Western Slope State League (WSSL). Click here to download a somewhat outdated copy of their rules.

High school games have their own rules which start with FIFA and then add:

1. National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Click here to read the high school soccer rules book. High school rules are annoyingly different from FIFA when dealing with substitutions, cards, uniforms, official equipment, etc. The NFHS rule book seems to lag FIFA by about three years.
2. Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA), found at www.chsaa.org governs all high school sports in the state. CHSAA has added a few modifications to the NFHS rulebook which primarily deal with the effect of red and yellow cards, official stadium clocks, and so forth. CHSSA has contracted with the High School Soccer Officials (HSSO) to test and license high school referees. Official high school referees must be at least USSF Level 8 and should have a special patch which identifies them as HSSO Colorado referees.