Rules

Players must play a minimum of 6 games (Club or Rec) to be eligible for Nationals in 2025.

Players should register by following the  steps in the 2025 USAFL Player Registration Guide.

Exemption requests for less than 6 games will only be considered in cases of injury, job, relocation, or personal reasons. All exemption requests must be submitted via the EXEMPTION REQUEST FORM prior to September 15, 2025.

• All games will be played in 2 x 20 minute half format.
• Half time break will be 5 minutes

• Team combinations will be determined in the best interests of the tournament competition and subject to the RVPs and Tournament Director discretion.
• Individual Players who do not have a home USAFL club must be approved to play and will be assigned to a team at the discretion of the RVPs and Tournament Director.

• Women will not be permitted to play in Men’s games at Nationals. There will be a full women’s competition.

The following limits are in effect for the number of players that can be added to a roster:

* Estimated until nationals divisions are set and announced.

All games in every division, are subject to the 50/50 rule (minimum of 50% Nationals, i.e. American or Canadian, on field at any given time)

• A “Non-National” player is anyone that is not deemed an American or Canadian
• Nationality ruling to be determined by country of birth on passport. Note: Attaining US or Canadian Citizenship does not qualify you as a National.
• If you play an Australian, an Irish person, or a New Zealander for example….all these nationalities are all deemed “Non-Nationals” and the team makeup on the field at any given time can not include more than 50% non nationals as determined by the maximum number of players on the field allowed for the division being played in.
• Therefore Clubs will need to have a minimum of “50% Nationals” on the field at all times as determined by the maximum number of players on the field allowed for the division being played in.
• If a player cannot prove “National Status” that player will be deemed a “Non-National”. If you are a an American or a Canadian, the onus will be on you to prove that status. If you cannot prove that status you will be deemed a “Non-National”
• The match sheet displays the player’s effective nationality for nationals. If the player’s nationality has not been verified, they will be considered a non-national and count against the 50/50 rule. Club Admin lists each player’s nationality verification status. Players may verify their nationality by presenting a passport or birth certificate and government issued ID when they check in.
• Non-Nationals must wear black armbands provided by tournament admin.
• TOURNAMENT OFFICIALS have the right to check players ID’s/nationality (randomly) before games at team tents.

• A minimum of 2 players on the bench is required to start a game. If one team has less than 20 players for divisions playing 18’s or less than 18 players for divisions playing 16’s or less than 16 players for divisions playing 14’s at the start of a game the number of players on the field will be determined by the total number of players minus 2. For example, if team A has only 18 players, the game will be played as 16’s.
• Teams can agree on a different number prior to the start of the game and must notify the umpires before the start.
• If an agreement can not be made the 2 player minimum bench policy will be followed.
• If there are any injuries in the first half, roster numbers may need to be adjusted at half time. For example if Team A starts the game with 18 players and a player suffers an injury in the first half and is unable to continue the number of eligible players for the second half will be reduced to 17 and 15’s will be played in the second half.
• If the game is being played with an odd number, i.e. 15’s, the number of Non Nationals allowed will be 7. If playing 17’s the number of Non Nationals allowed will be 8, etc.

If a club has multiple teams entered in the tournament:

• A player may be moved to a higher division or a lower division, but may not play multiple games in the same round. For example, if a player plays in their Division IV, V team’s second match at 1pm, they cannot play in their Division II’s second match at 3pm.
• A player is considered to have played in a match by being on the final roster for the match (30 minutes prior to the game’s scheduled start). If a player is not on the roster for a match, they are ineligible for that match.
• If a player has played 2 games in a higher division they are not permitted to play in a lower division Final.

• Violations of the Total Players Allowed and the 50/50 Rule will not be tolerated.
• Should a team be found to have too many Non-Nationals on the field – that team will lose all points scored in that half until the time of the player count. The captain of the team requesting the player count will be given a free kick plus a 50-meter penalty from either the center circle or where the ball was at the time of the player count, whichever is greater advantage to that team.
• The opposition captain is the only person who can call for a player count. The captain must request the player count from a field umpire; boundary and goal umpires are not permitted to stop the game for a player count. When the captain calls for the player count, the field umpire will ask two questions: “Are you sure?” because the penalty for being wrong is severe. If the answer is “Yes”, the second question is “Total players or Non-National players? With that answer, the field umpire will stop the game and the game clock. All players on field at that time must come to center and be counted by umpires (non-national players will have on armbands) this includes players who are trying to get off the field and any players who have come on the field too early at the interchange. For a total player count, the field umpire will count all players who were on the field. For a 50/50 violation count, the field umpire will count all Non-Nationals, as identified by the arm bands required to be worn.
• If the accused team is found to NOT be in violation of the either total players or non-Nationals players allowed (depending on which player count was requested), the captain of the team that called for the count will be given a red card and sent off for the remainder of the game and is reported for Time Wasting and will go to tribunal. The captain of the accused team will be given a free kick plus a 50-meter penalty from either the center circle or where the ball was at the time of the player count, whichever is greater advantage to the accused team.

• In divisions with pool play the top ranked team from each Division pool will advance to the Championship game. In divisions without pools the top two teams at the end of preliminary rounds will play in the Grand Final. Rankings will be based upon:
  • Total Championship points
  • Percentage (points scored/points allowed)
  • Points scored
  • Goals scored.
  • Head to Head
  • Toss of coin
• In divisions that are configured to use Head to Head as first tie breaker, rankings will be based upon:
  • Total Championship points
  • Head to Head
  • Percentage (points scored/points allowed)
  • Points scored
  • Goals scored
  • Toss of coin

Head to Head

When using Head to Head, all the teams tied in the previous tie breaker are group together and their tournament points among each other are used to rank them.  For example,. if two teams are tied at 3-1 and you have a situation where A beat B but lost to C (who has 2 or more losses) then the H2H would look like the below.

Now if you have a 3 way tie where A beat B, B beat C, and C beat A

In this scenario, H2H doesn’t break the tie so we move on the next tie breaker (percentage if H2H is configured as first tie breaker)