Fall 2026 registration now open · Kicks off September 12 · Winter 2027 opens November

League rules

Know the rules .

This is how the Premier Athletics adult indoor 7v7 soccer league in Stoney Creek runs: a 12-week regular season, 3 weeks of playoffs that every team makes, and one forfeit policy everyone agrees to at sign-up.

Regular season

12 weeks

Playoffs

3 weeks

Forfeit fee

$200

Playoff format

Everyone
makes it

01 · Season format

12 weeks, then the bracket.

  • Every season is a 12-week regular season. Each team plays a weekly fixture at Players Paradise in Stoney Creek.
  • The regular season is followed by 3 weeks of playoffs: quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the season final.
  • Final standings after week 12 set the playoff seeding. Win more, finish higher, earn the easier first-round matchup.

02 · Playoffs

Seeded by record.

Every team makes the playoffs - seeding is the reward. The bracket pairs the best record against the lowest seed: 1st plays 8th, 2nd plays 7th, 3rd plays 6th, and 4th plays 5th.

Matchup 1

11st seed

vs

88th seed

Matchup 2

44th seed

vs

55th seed

Matchup 3

22nd seed

vs

77th seed

Matchup 4

33rd seed

vs

66th seed

Winners advance through the semi-finals to the season final over the 3-week playoff window. Higher seeds carry home-fixture priority where the schedule allows.

Individual awards

Ball out, get rewarded.

Four end-of-season awards, each worth a $150 credit toward your next registration.

MVP

The season's most valuable player.

$150

Golden Boot

Most goals scored.

$150

Golden Gloves

Most clean sheets - fewest goals conceded.

$150

Most Assists

Most assists on the season.

$150

The Golden Boot, Golden Gloves, and Most Assists are decided by the stats. MVP is selected by the league office, which analyzes each player's individual performance alongside how their team performed across the season.

03 · Match day

Fifty minutes. No stoppages.

Straightforward on-pitch rules so nobody's guessing on a Saturday night.

Format & play

  • Regular-season games run 50 minutes straight, not two halves. Playoff games run 40 minutes straight.
  • Substitutions are on the fly, anywhere along your own bench line, no stoppage needed.
  • Slide tackles are not permitted, in any part of the pitch.
  • There's no extra time, in the regular season or the playoffs. A level regular-season score stands as a draw. A tied playoff game goes straight to a penalty shootout.

Kit & eligibility

  • On a colour clash, the home team changes. Bring an alternate kit just in case, if you don't have one, the league provides pinnies pitch-side.
  • Every jersey must be numbered, refs check numbers against the gamesheet.
  • Only registered players on your team's roster are eligible to play. No guests, no exceptions.

04 · Conduct & appeals

Respect the ref.

Cards are part of the game. Abuse isn't. If you think a call was wrong, there's a real process to challenge it.

File an appeal
  • Abusive language directed at referees will not be tolerated and is grounds for an immediate card or ejection.
  • Yellow and red cards are issued entirely at the referee's discretion in the moment.
  • Yellow cards accumulate across the season. Pick up 3 yellow cards and it's an automatic 1-game suspension, then your count resets back to 0.
  • Want to appeal a yellow or red card? It's a $50 appeal fee, payable to the club, to open a review.
  • The board reviews every appeal against match footage and gets back to the team within 72 hours.

05 · Forfeits

Don't leave a team waiting.

If a team forfeits a fixture, that team is charged a $200 forfeit fee, payable to the club. A forfeit wastes the field, the referees, and your opponents' night, and the fee keeps everyone committed to showing up and fielding a side every week.

The field time isn't wasted either way: it's still the opposing team's booked slot, so they're welcome to use the field to train or scrimmage instead of the game they were owed.

  • A forfeit happens one of two ways: you email the club ahead of time, or your team is more than 15 minutes late for kickoff (10:15 PM for the 10:00 PM slot, 11:15 PM for the 11:00 PM slot). Please make sure your team arrives on time.
  • An automatic forfeit awards the opposing team a 3-0 victory.
  • Short on players? A team can play with as few as 4 players. Show up with 3 or fewer and it's an automatic forfeit.

Per forfeit

$200

Payable to the club

06 · Scoring & standings

Win, and it counts.

How points stack up over the 12 weeks, and how we break a tie when two teams finish level.

Win

3 pts

Draw

1 pt

Loss

0 pts

The table

  • Teams are ranked by total points. A regular-season draw stands and is worth a point to each side.
  • Standings update after every fixture and are live on the Stats page all season.
  • Your finish after week 12 sets your playoff seed - every team makes the bracket.

Breaking a tie

Level on points? We settle it in this order:

  1. 1Head-to-head record between the tied teams.
  2. 2Goal difference across the season.
  3. 3Goals scored.
  4. 4Fair play - fewest cards on the season.

Still dead level for a playoff spot? A one-off tiebreaker fixture decides it.

07 · Roster & eligibility

Your team, your roster.

Build your squad, keep it clean, and only your registered players take the pitch.

  • Rosters carry up to 15 active players, including the captain. Share your join code and players register themselves onto the team, no manual adds.
  • Once you hit 15, extra sign-ups land on a team waitlist the captain promotes from when a spot opens.
  • A player may be rostered to one team per season only. Playing an unregistered or borrowed player is an automatic forfeit.
  • Roster changes lock on October 1st - anyone added after that date is playoff-ineligible.
  • A red card ejects the player for the rest of that game and the team plays a man down. Within 48 hours, the league office reviews the incident and decides how long the suspension is.

Questions on the rules?

Check the FAQ or reach the league office. We'll sort it before kickoff.

Read the FAQ Register a team