How long is a soccer game? 6v6, 7v7, futsal, and 11v11

FIFA put a three-minute hydration break into every one of the 104 games at the 2026 World Cup, around 22 minutes into each half and regardless of the temperature, including games under closed roofs and in cooler cities like Seattle, as ESPN reported. A game that officially lasts 90 minutes was, in practice, played in quarters. In your Tuesday-night rec league, a different clock decides how long a soccer game lasts. In the City of Burbank's adult 7v7 league, for example, games are two 25-minute halves on a running clock with a three-minute halftime and no stoppage time at all. When the clock hits zero, the game is over.

So how long is a soccer game? It depends on the field. An 11v11 game lasts 90 minutes: two 45-minute halves with a halftime of up to 15 minutes. In amateur 6v6, 7v7, and futsal leagues, the league's own rules set the game length, and the usual answer is two halves of 20 to 25 minutes that fit inside an hour of field time. Below you'll find the typical game length for each format, the timing rules worth writing into your rulebook, and a short summary of the Laws of the Game for 11v11. In an amateur league, the field booking decides how long a game lasts and the rulebook writes it down: every game-night schedule and the whole season follow from that one number. If you run your league on FLM System, it's also the number the system uses to fit games into your field times.

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How long is a soccer game in an amateur league?

Outside 11v11, only futsal and 6-a-side socca have worldwide rules on game length. Everything else is up to the league, and leagues almost always build it around field time, because fields and gyms are rented by the hour. That's why the answer to "how long are soccer games?" changes from one rec league format to the next.

6v6: two 20-minute halves

The closest thing 6v6 has to an international standard is socca, which has its own federation and its own rules: a goalkeeper and five field players on a small field. Under the ISF's official rules for 2026, a standard game lasts 40 minutes, played as two 20-minute halves with a five-minute break. The referee is the only timekeeper, and a tie in a knockout round goes straight to penalty kicks, with no overtime.

Most 6v6 leagues stick to that measure, or stretch the halves to 25 minutes when the field time allows. A 2×20 game with its break takes 45 minutes of field time. Everything a league in this format needs week to week, from the schedule to the standings, is on our 6v6 soccer page.

7v7: two 25-minute halves

Two 25-minute halves with a short halftime is the most common setup in adult 7v7 leagues, although anything from 2×20 to 2×30 turns up. With a five-minute break that's 55 minutes, which slots into an hourly field rental once you allow for the changeover.

Leagues that prefer 2×30 either rent 90 minutes or accept that the last game of the night ends late. Field sizes, roster numbers, and substitution rules are covered in our guide to 7v7 soccer.

5v5 and indoor soccer: under an hour

Leagues playing 5v5 usually go with two halves of 12 to 25 minutes, and most weeknight leagues wrap a game up in 40 to 50 minutes, halftime included. At an indoor arena with dasher boards, the facility sets the clock: games typically run two halves of about 20 minutes on a running clock, the turf is booked in fixed slots, and the next teams walk on at the top of the hour whatever the score.

Futsal: 40 minutes on a stopping clock

Futsal has its own Laws: two 20-minute halves of playing time, a halftime of up to 15 minutes, and one one-minute timeout per team in each half, under Law 7 of the futsal Laws. What decides the length, though, is Law 6. The timekeeper stops the clock every time the ball goes out of play, after a goal, when a free kick or penalty kick is awarded, and when a player is injured, so a futsal game always takes noticeably longer than 40 minutes on the wall clock.

Amateur leagues rarely have a separate timekeeper, so most play a running clock, anywhere from 2×12 to 2×20, and a game fits into a 35- to 50-minute slot. The rest of the sport, from the low-bounce ball to accumulated fouls, is in our guide to futsal rules.

Your league rulebook sets the game length

Nobody outside your league tells you how long a soccer game should last in it. The Laws let you shorten the halves, the field rental sets the limit, and your rulebook locks in the number for the season. Anything left unwritten gets settled on the field, usually at 2-2 with three minutes to go.

Law 7 lets you shorten the halves

Law 7 of the IFAB Laws of the Game says the two 45-minute halves can be shortened only if the referee and both teams agree before kickoff, and only where the competition rules allow it. The futsal Laws say the same about their 20 minutes.

In an amateur league, the competition rules are your rules. You set the game length once and it holds for every game night, so nobody has to negotiate it with the captains before each kickoff.

Seven timing rules for your rulebook

Seven points cover the clock. Whichever one you leave out, somebody will bring it up halfway through the season:

1. Length of each half – one number for the whole league, for example 2×25 in 7v7.
2. Length of halftime – five minutes is plenty when the slot is an hour.
3. Running or stopped clock, and who keeps time – in rec soccer it's almost always a running clock kept by the referee. If someone else does it, name them.
4. Stoppage time – if you allow it, cap it. A minute or two is enough to give back time lost to an injury without eating into the next game's slot.
5. Late teams – how long you wait for a short-handed team and what result goes into the standings if they never show.
6. A game that kicks off late – it still ends at the scheduled time. This one rule prevents more arguments than any other, because the field rental ends when it ends, whether or not the game has.
7. Ties in the playoffs – straight to penalty kicks, three each and then sudden death; an hour-long slot has no room for overtime.

The rest of the rulebook, from cards to the order of tiebreakers in the standings, is in our piece on the 10 decisions to make before the season.

From game length to field slot

Knowing how long a soccer game lasts in your league is half the math. The other half is the slot: the field time one game takes up, made of the game itself, the break, and roughly five minutes for one pair of teams to clear off and the next to come on. For the most common formats it looks like this:

• 7v7, 2×25 – 50 + 5 + 5, a 60-minute slot. One game an hour.
• 6v6, 2×20 – 40 + 5 + 5, a 50-minute slot. On a 90-minute rental, that's one game with a real warmup, or two shorter ones at 2×15 with no break.
• Futsal – a running-clock 2×15 gives 30 + 5 + 5, a 40-minute slot. With a stopping clock, allow at least 50 minutes per game and three games in a three-hour block.
• 11v11 – 90 + 15 + the changeover, a block of about two hours per game.

How many games fit into your hours, and how many teams that serves over a season, we work out step by step in our guide to planning a league season.

In FLM System you set the game or slot length once. Enter when each field is available, and the soccer league scheduling software gives every game a date, a kickoff time, a field, and a referee. Two games never land on the same field at the same time, even with several leagues sharing one complex. It costs $1 per team per month, and you can build your first schedule before entering a card. A slot that's been worked out properly keeps the night on schedule; one guessed at ends every evening twenty minutes late.

How long is a soccer game under the Laws of the Game?

Ask anyone "how long is a soccer game?" and you'll hear "90 minutes." That figure comes from the Laws of the Game for 11v11, which the IFAB updates every year; the 2026/27 edition took effect on July 1, 2026. Even if your league plays on a small field, it's the benchmark every other format is measured against.

Two 45-minute halves and up to 15 minutes of halftime

How many minutes is a soccer game? Ninety minutes of play in two 45-minute halves, with a halftime of up to 15 minutes. From the opening whistle to the final one, with halftime and stoppage time, a professional game takes close to an hour and 55 minutes.

The Laws only set a ceiling on how long halftime in a soccer game can last. The exact length is set by the competition rules, and it can only be changed with the referee's permission. In overtime there is no real break between the two periods, just a short drinks pause of up to a minute.

Stoppage time and effective playing time

The clock in 11v11 keeps running while the ball is dead, and at the end of each half the referee adds back the time lost. Law 7 lists where it goes:

• substitutions,
• treating and removing injured players,
• deliberate time-wasting and disciplinary sanctions,
• medical breaks allowed by the competition rules: drinks breaks of up to a minute and cooling breaks of 90 seconds to three minutes,
• VAR checks and reviews,
• goal celebrations.

The 2026/27 Laws went after time-wasting from another angle. A referee can now show a visible five-second countdown when a team delays a throw-in or a goal kick. Run past it and the throw-in goes to the opponents, while a goal kick becomes a corner kick for them. A substituted player has ten seconds to leave the field, according to the IFAB's summary of the changes.

Even so, the ball is in play for little more than half the game. World Cup group games in 2026 averaged around 100 minutes of play, with the ball live for roughly 57% of it, according to DataFactory and Opta figures reported by Ecuador's Expreso. The question of how many minutes a soccer game lasts therefore has two answers: 90 in the Laws, and just under an hour with the ball moving. In rec leagues hardly anyone adds stoppage time, because the next two teams are already waiting.

Frequently asked questions

How long is halftime in soccer?

Up to 15 minutes in the professional game, with the exact length set by the competition. In a rec league every minute of halftime comes out of the slot, so it's better to start from the slot length and see how much break fits in. In formats of 2×20 or shorter, many leagues skip halftime altogether and just switch sides, which on a four-game evening frees up about 20 minutes of field time.

How long is a futsal game?

That depends on who is keeping time:

• Under the Laws – two 20-minute halves of effective time, with the clock stopped every time the ball goes out. With halftime and timeouts, allow at least 50 minutes on the wall clock.
• On a running clock – the minutes in your league rules are the minutes on the clock, plus halftime.
• Timeouts – the Laws give each team one one-minute timeout per half. On a running clock each one costs a minute of play, so decide in your rulebook whether to keep them.

If you choose a stopping clock, appoint someone to keep time before the season starts, because it's hard for a referee to whistle and run a stopwatch at once.

How long is a rec league soccer game?

There's no national standard, so how long a soccer game lasts in a rec league is whatever your league's rules say. City and parks leagues commonly play 7v7 as two 25-minute halves on a running clock: Burbank's rules add a three-minute halftime, let regular-season ties stand, and use a five-minute overtime followed by a shootout only in the playoffs. Check your league's rules for the exact figure.

How long is a soccer game with overtime and penalties?

It depends whether you mean a professional knockout game or a rec league:

• Professional game – 90 minutes plus stoppage time and halftime, two 15-minute periods of overtime with a short drinks pause between them, then a penalty shootout. The whole thing, from kickoff to the last penalty kick, can take more than two and a half hours.
• Rec leagues and socca – usually little or no overtime. The game goes to penalty kicks at or soon after the final whistle, and the shootout adds 5–10 minutes to the slot.

If your playoff rounds run back to back, leave an open slot after each round to soak up those minutes.

Why is a soccer game 90 minutes?

One of the most cited origins dates back to 1866. The match between the London and Sheffield associations in England was agreed at 90 minutes, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m., because the rules of the time set neither the length of a game nor a halftime break, according to the account of that game. Over time, 90 minutes made it into the Laws, and today Law 7 splits it into two halves of 45.

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