Rules and Registration

To participate in PUSL you must:

• - Be 16 years old or older
• - Have a signed consent form if you are under 18 years of age
• - Be a member of a registered team with a minimum of 24 players
• - Sign a release of liability waver
• - Register your team
• - Pay your team registration Fee $750.00

» PUSL Code of Conduct
» Liability Waiver
» Registration Form
» PassBack Violation

Ball Requirements

FIFA rules say the ball has to:

• Be spherical (round, you guys!);

• Be made of leather or other suitable material;

• Be no more than 28 inches nor less than 27 inches around (which is the size of what we know as a Size 5 ball);

• Weigh no more than 16 oz (one pound) nor less than 14 oz at the start of the match;

• Be inflated to between 8.5 and 15.6 lbs per square inch...approx 1.1 atmospheres at sea level.

• If anything happens to the ball during play, a new one must first be approved by the referee and the match is restarted by a drop ball, if it was in play, or by whatever restart would be appropriate if it was out of play. FIFA says a ball has to be approved by FIFA to be used in match play.

Laws of the Game

Leave your expectations from other sports behind: soccer timekeeping is different.

• Game structure: A soccer game consists of two halves that must be of equal length in their prescribed duration, with a required timeout for halftime in between. In adult soccer, the prescribed duration is 45 minutes. Local organizations can prescribe shorter, though still equal-length halves (and therefore, games) for youth and adult recreational games.

• Center referee as official timekeeper: The center referee acts as official timekeeper, and has flexible discretion that is perhaps unique in team sports to determine and extend the amount of official time remaining in the game, as will be explored in more detail below.

• Continuous, nonstop clock: The official clock starts at 0:00 and runs upward continuously except at halftime, starting in the second half where it left off at the end of the first, stopping again only at the end of the game. The following important rules are outgrowths from the nonstop nature of the clock:

  • No rule exists allowing clock to be stopped: The rules give no authorization for the referee to ever stop the official clock from running, except for halftime.

  • No timeouts (none!): Neither players nor coaches have any right to call a timeout, nor is the referee authorized to recognize or call timeout on his or her own initiative.

• Fouls or ball out of play: The clock does not stop for any stoppage in active play, whether it be for a player foul or to retrieve and place a ball that has gone out back into play.

• Referee's discretion to add time to game: Instead of stopping the clock, the referee is authorized to add extra time to each half to compensate for time lost through:

  • attending to injuries on the field;

  • completing player substitutions;

  • delays in putting the ball back into active play after it goes out, whether through deliberate time-wasting tactics, or accidental causes like having to retrieve the game ball when it goes out and rolls down a slope into dense brush;

  • any other cause for interruption to active play the referee deems sufficient.

    • The amount, if any, of time to add is at the discretion of the referee, as s/he deems appropriate. The exact language of LOTG 7 would seem to indicate that it is mandatory for the referee to extend this discretion for appropriate causes, but in practice the referee's decision to not extend, or very restrictively extend time is not truly subject to challenge except maybe in rare instances (perhaps, such as adding no time when a severe injury stops play for 30 minutes). Most referees do not add time for ordinary momentary delays, such as a few efficiently accomplished substitutions or a few stray balls that must be chased, but rather only when one particular delay or the cumulative effect of several delays becomes substantial. Although the prescribed length of the halves must be equal (and must be played out to at least this length), each half (and the game) may run longer than the prescribed amount due to this discretionary power to add time.

    • No one but the ref really knows what time it is: In practice the only official clock is usually the stopwatch in the referee's hand or a digital watch on their wrist (called "keeping time on the field"), and there is no particular requirement that the referee inform teams how much time remains. Even if a publicly visible scoreboard clock is available, this at best only tracks official time elapsed, and not official time remaining, because of the discretionary power of the referee to add time to compensate for time lost through delays.

• Game's only over when the ref says it is: Remarkably, the rules do not require the referee to inform anyone, not even the assistant referees, how much, if any time s/he intends to add to the end of the game, and no one but the referee knows when time will run out and s/he will end of the game with the distinctive triple signature of the whistle, tweet-tweet-tweeeeet!

• Halftime break is mandatory: The players have a mandatory right to a halftime break, which neither the referee nor coaches may waive, of not longer than 15 minutes. The preset rules of the particular competition can stipulate a shorter halftime break, which can only be altered with the consent of the referee.

• Shortening the game: Provided both teams and the referee mutually agree before the game starts, both halves may be shortened by equal (never uneven) stipulated amounts. This might be done, e.g. if an afternoon game without lights might extend at full length until after dark.

  • Effect of prematurely ending the game: A game which is terminated prematurely by the referee for any reason, such as a persistent thunderstorm, the field becoming waterlogged by rain, or excessive spectator interference, is considered abandoned and is a nullity unless the preset rules for that particular competition provide that the score at the time of stoppage stands. Otherwise, a game ended prematurely must be replayed in its entirety, regardless of what was the score or the cause for its premature end.

• Temporarily suspending game: The referee may temporarily suspend a game instead of terminating it. A game that is temporarily stopped e.g. to try to wait out a passing storm is not necessarily abandoned after any specific amount of time, but rather becomes so by the referee's surrender of the possibility of waiting it out.

• If the first two halves end in a tie: Soccer games are allowed to end with a tie score. However, the preset rules for a particular competition may provide that ties be resolved through using either of the following, or even both ( (a), followed by (b) if the tie still persists):

  • a mini-game of two overtime periods of equal prescribed length (usually stipulated much shorter than regular halves) is played in its entirety, and not as sudden death;

  • a contest of alternating penalty kicks is held (see FAQ supplement)

  • in some competitions, sudden victory ("golden goal") overtime is played. NOTE: this means of breaking ties has been tried on an experimental basis in FIFA competitions, but is not yet officially sanctioned by the Laws.

• If time expires before penalty shot can be taken: If a referee calls a foul before time expires for which the referee must award a penalty shot (and not merely a free kick) and the time remaining in the (half or) game then expires before the penalty shot can be taken, the (half or) game cannot end until the penalty shot has been taken and completed. In such time-expired penalty kicks, the attacking team only gets the one touch of the penalty kick itself, even if the shot rebounds off the goalkeeper back into the field, so only the kicker and the goalkeeper participate. The (half or) game is over when either the ball goes out of play or its momentum is spent, having either scored a goal or not.