We are kicking off the official rules discussion right now here and on the Discord (the join link is here).
Timeline:
Rules discussions on Forum and Discord starts right now
Don’t worry if you’re only on the forum or only on the Discord. We’ll make sure all arguments reach both sides. The forum will remain as the “official record” of the discussion because it is easier to find things in.
In the week from August 18th to 24th we will have two open video calls to talk about the proposed changes. Don’t worry if you cannot make it to these calls, we will take notes and make sure we publish everything discussed to the appropriate topics on the forum. If you’re interested in joining those please fill out the times you would be available to join such a call here. To be able to have the most productive discussion please post your ideas ahead of time for others to be able to understand your ideas before the meeting begins.
On September 1st we will publish a draft. Unless something unforeseen happens this draft will be revised only for clarifications and restructuring but there will be no furhter significant changes to gameplay rules. Check the notice on top of the draft rules document when they are released: this will tell you if there are any significant changes that might still happen.
After that we will make small edits to create final rules with all the edits done, confusing things clarified and the document hopefully simplified a little bit overall.
Format
There is one thread per suggestion. If you have things to add to this simply create a new thread on the forum or Discord, tag it #soccer-rules-2026 and add it to this list (this post is editable in “wiki mode”). You can also just post to this thread and I’ll create and link a new thread but that will probably take a bit longer.
Please include the following schema when proposing changes (feel free to copy/paste from here):
Proposed change
Describe your proposed change. Example: I would like to allow teams of any size in RoboCupJunior Soccer.
Reson for change
Describe why you would like to see this change implemented. Example: We are a larger group and we could build a much better robot if we were able to join as a team of 7 people.
Advantages
List the advantages of the new rule change.
Teams of 8 are easy to split into 4+4, splitting a team of 5 into 2+3 doesn’t really yield two large enough teams.
More advanced robots could be built
Beginner teams can achieve more because they have more people to split all the new challenges with
Maybe teams can finally all read all of the rules and not be surprised when referees show them where it says they can’t do/have to do something
Disadvantages
Please list the disadvantages of the new rule change - even ones that you think aren’t big deals.
More floor space needed at competition
More difficult to talk to everyone at interviews
Maybe people get added to teams that don’t really have anything technical to do
Effects on other aspects of the competition
Please list any effects on other rules or aspects of the competition.
Does not really apply in this case (I think) but in case of rule changes put a description here of what other rules might come into play more or less or would produce conflicting results with your proposed change.
Archived: previous announcement for RoboCup Salvador On-Site meeting
if you are at the event you may have already seen that we are holding a rules discussion panel after the last round today and before the Junior Party. If you are here in Person just come to the interview room at 17:40 (Brasilia Time). If you are not here in person but have time you are welcome to join us via the Soccer Discord Voice Channel here at 20:40 UTC. If you are not yet on the Discord the invite link to join it is here.
Feel free to post topics you would like to be discussed below, I will start with the suggestions we got over the course of the year - sorry if I forgot some, please post them again.
Best Regards and wo hope to see you there or at the follow-up video calls (follow this thread to be notified of the dates and times)
lightweight is the wrong name anyway.
We should call it IR-league and vision-league.
We (Teams from Bohlebots) do not need an increase of the weight limit, but we are fine with any limit.
But keep in mind that we need some differences between the leagues. If we reduce the ball size to golf ball size in “IR-League fka lightweigt” the two leagues are getting very close as most of the teams use cameras to spot the goals anyway.
Greeting
Roland
I post another topic here:
Teams-Size
I asked for that before, but that was the wrong time and place.
Here and now I would like to ask for a rule change for team-size.
In the two highest leagues 2vs2 soccer we have older students that work together even if not at the same grade.
So if one or two quit playing soccer junior we sometime end with only five students left for the next season.
While 3 build a team, two are not enough.
So 6 students are fine to build two teams but 5 students have a problem. Increasing the team members to 5 just for the top leagues would solve the problem.
Thanks for considering this idea.
Roland
we have many ideas that have the weight limit being the only limitation, and will allow use of much cheaper components. heres our planned BOM for different weight limits:
I’m bumping this thread for everyone who is following this thread for the rules discussion. The first post up there is updated all the details for the 2026 rules discussion.
Have we forgotten anything? Post here, we’ll add it.
one more reminder: on the weekend after next week (23rd or 24th of August) we will be having open calls (at two times so one hopefully fits your time zone). To help us plan these please fill out now because we have to select and announce a time over the weekend
For the Entry league we are not changing the ball. There is a way to use the small orange ball in 3D printed adapter shell so it can become the same size if you cannot get a hold of the regular ball. But because Lego dribblers that work well for the small ball are hard to build (not just Lego but for beginners we always consider that starting out with Lego is one of the main ways that it’s done if people don’t have any experience yet) we’re not shrinking the ball for Entry, neither 1vs1 Stanard Kit nor 1vs1 Lightweight.
I believe it would be very beneficial for all of us to further improve the flow of the game in the soccer leagues and reduce unnecessary interruptions. My suggestion is to achieve this through the use of modules, which already proved to be an excellent improvement this year.
The idea is to introduce a rule where, when a robot leaves the field boundaries, it automatically stops at the exact point where it exited. This would minimize unnecessary repositioning of robots and keep the game much more continuous.
A specific situation is when a robot exits inside the penalty box. In that case, there are two possible solutions:
the robot stays at the position where it left the field, since a stationary robot does not pose a real threat to the opponent
or it gets placed into the opposite corner of the field, so it does not interfere with a goal opportunity
Additionally, when the “penalty time” expires, the robot should not need to be physically returned by the referee or the team – the system could simply allow the robot to automatically resume playing once the time is over, which would further motivate teams to solve the problem of robot localization and challenge them to handle the issue of re-entering the field, since the robot would need to know where to return.
Another point is related to damaged robots. I propose that when a robot is declared damaged, it remains out of the game until the next kick-off. This would prevent teams from calling damaged in situations where the robot is simply “playing in the wrong direction” and would ensure the rule is only applied when the robot is genuinely malfunctioning. It would also push teams to design stronger and more reliable robots that won’t end up damaged after every duel.
One more idea is that during every lack of progress situation, all robots are stopped simultaneously by pressing a single button in the system. After that, the referee places the ball at the most neutral spot, and with one press of a button all robots are activated again. This would not only prevent potential injuries to referees caused by moving robots but also make the game fairer – since some teams can track the ball when it is outside the field (e.g., above them), while others cannot and thus lose out. Referee interaction should never be an advantage for any team.
Feel free to improve my suggestions or adjust them in any way that could further enhance our soccer league.
Hi Ivan,
using these modules would actually offer a lot of new possibilities.
On the first glimpse I agree all of your suggestions. Possibly with some fine tuning, but nevertheless I like them.
My suggestion for 2026 is to fix the protocol for the module/robot interface and to introduce the module as a standard must-have for both 2vs2 leagues, but with only one feature : “start”, so that on ever neutral start the hands of the students are outside the field. This would be an easy adaption to existing robots and keeps the opportunity for major rule changes for 2027.
Team size at the intl. tournament is subject to logistical questions (venue space etc.). We are definitely trying though. LWP weight is going to 1500 as can be seen on the GitHub-PR. We’ll push out the draft PDF as soon as we can - maybe with tla note that ream size isn’t final yet.