Tournament rules.
How a category is played, from the first group match to the final, and what is still to be settled.
Every category starts with a round-robin group stage and finishes with placement matches, so no team goes home after one bad result. The coming tournament is played in three categories: boys born 2010, 2012 and 2014.
How many teams enter each category decides the rest: how many groups there are, who meets in the semi-finals, and which placement matches are played. That is settled once entries close, and published here.
How a category is played
Teams are drawn into one or more groups and play everyone in their group once. Where a category is large enough to be split, the group winners and the best runners-up go into semi-finals, and the rest play off for the places below them. Where a category is small, the whole field plays a single round robin and the table decides who meets in the final.
Either way every team keeps playing to the end of the tournament and finishes with a place.
This edition
The shape of each category follows the entries. Match settings are already fixed.
2010
- 2 × 25 minutes, size 3 ball, two-minute suspensions.
- Teams, groups and placement matches are published once entries close.
2012
- 2 × 20 minutes, size 2 ball, one-minute suspensions.
- Teams, groups and placement matches are published once entries close.
2014
- 2 × 20 minutes, size 1 ball, one-minute suspensions.
- Teams, groups and placement matches are published once entries close.
The essentials
| Point | Rule |
|---|---|
| Points | Two for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat. |
| Level on points | Head to head first, then goal difference between the tied teams, then goal difference and goals scored in the group, then a draw. |
| Level in a placement match | Five series of seven-metre throws. |
| Suspensions | Two minutes in 2010, one minute in 2012 and 2014. |
| Match length | 2 × 25 minutes for 2010, 2 × 20 for 2012 and 2014, with a five-minute break. |
| Ball size | Size 3 for 2010, size 2 for 2012, size 1 for 2014. |
Follow the matches
Groups, fixtures and results are published live during the tournament, next to the original rules.