The Mercy Rule

SFYS has a mercy rule in the recreational league.

Teams should not win by 6 or more goals in SFYS recreational soccer, altneratively written as more than 5.

People may also dislike you.

It’s tough!!

You practice to get better, get to the game and it goes so well you just cannot stop scoring!

You sub in all of your players, change their positions, and they’re still scoring!

Remembering that this is recreational soccer, which should be all about the experience and lighting the passion for the future in our players, we encourage you to follow these steps to help implement the mercy rule and keep all players excited to play.

First of all, in recreational play we have a suggestion that you should remove 1 player when you are up by 4 goals, and a second at 5. Beyond that we have some other suggestions to help manage the game:

⚽️ take your keeper out to play 5 on the field.

⚽️Keep the ball until the other team score.

⚽️ Please don’t yell ‘NO MORE GOALS!’ Sub players in with the message for the team!

It is tough, but there are things you can do within the game to help and whilst the game score isn’t pretty, the effort to support your opponent will be most definitely appreciated.

Whilst there is no mercy rule in the Upper House or Varsity divisions, we still need you to be mindful of the game and your opponent. If you note your next opponent might be too easy/too hard please reach out to them and have a conversation about the coming game and what to expect. Your players will benefit.

Thank you for reading and for focusing on the players and not the result!