How Many Quarters Are in Soccer?

Updated

Soccer has no quarters under the official rules: a game is two halves of 45 minutes. But many youth games use four quarters. US Soccer's standards for U6–U8 (4v4) are 4 × 10 minutes, and high school rules allow four 20-minute quarters where a state association adopts them.

On this page
  1. Halves vs quarters by age and level
  2. Why youth soccer uses quarters
  3. How quarters make subbing easy

Halves vs quarters by age and level

Soccer periods by age and level
Age or levelPeriodsRule source
U6–U8 (4v4)4 quarters of 10 min, 5-min breaksUS Soccer standards
AYSO U7–U82 × 20 min halves, with a sub break midway through each halfAYSO
U9–U10 (7v7)2 halves of 25 minUS Soccer standards
U11–U12 (9v9)2 halves of 30 minUS Soccer standards
U13–U192 halves of 35 to 45 minUS Youth Soccer events, AYSO
High school2 × 40 min halves, or 4 × 20 min quarters if the state adopts themNFHS
College2 halves of 45 minNCAA
Pro and international2 halves of 45 minIFAB Law 7
Futsal2 periods of 20 minFIFA Futsal Laws

So quarters show up at the two ends of the age range: the youngest players and, in some states, high school. Everyone else plays halves. Full game lengths for every age are in our guide to how long a soccer game is.

AYSO is a special case. Its U7–U8 games are two halves, but the substitution break midway through each half splits the game into four parts, which AYSO's own guidance calls "quarters". AYSO's "Everyone Plays" rule counts in quarters too: a player who arrives during the second or third quarter must still play at least one quarter.

Why youth soccer uses quarters

  • More rest. US Soccer's 4v4 standard puts a 5-minute break between quarters, so young players get three breaks instead of one.
  • Natural sub points. Each break is a clean moment to change players without stopping a game in progress.
  • Simple fairness. Quarters played are easy to count and easy to explain to parents.

US Soccer's 4v4 standard also allows unlimited substitutions at any time and says quarters can be shorter than 10 minutes when coaches and parents run the game. Check your league: some use halves at U8, and the youth soccer age groups guide shows the standard format for each age.

How quarters make subbing easy

If you only sub between quarters, each quarter is one sub window, and the number of spots depends on how many players are on the field in your format (our guide to how many players are on a soccer team lists them by age). In 4v4, four quarters × four spots gives 16 "player-quarters" to share:

  • 8 players: everyone plays exactly 2 quarters (20 minutes).
  • 6 players: 16 doesn't divide by 6, so four players play 3 quarters (30 min) and two play 2 (20 min).

Here is a quarters-only plan for 6 players, built by our rotation engine:

Each player
20:00–30:00
Max difference
10:00
On the bench
2 at a time
Sub windows
4
Who plays where in each sub window
PlayerQuarter 1Quarter 2Quarter 3Quarter 4Total
0:000:000:000:00
4AvaCB–STCB30:0075%
1BenLM–RM–20:0050%
9CarlosSTST–ST30:0075%
7DiyaRMRM–RM30:0075%
3Eli–CBCB–20:0050%
10Fatima–LMLMLM30:0075%

GKGoalkeeper DDefense MMidfield FAttack –Bench

Subbing in the middle of each quarter too (every 5 minutes) narrows the gap to 25–30 minutes. For exactly equal time with 6 players, sub every 3:20 (three windows per quarter): everyone plays 26:40. This table compares the options:

4v4 with 6 players, 4 × 10 min
Sub intervalSub windowsMinutes eachFairness
Every 2:301625:00–27:304 players get one extra window
Every 3:201226:40Perfectly equal
Every 5:00825:00–30:002 players get one extra window
Every 10:00420:00–30:004 players get one extra window

The same idea works for high school quarters: NFHS lets both teams make unlimited substitutions between periods, so four quarters give a coach three planned sub points with no need to wait for a throw-in or goal kick.

Plan quarter-by-quarter subs for your own team

Plan my quarters

For more rotation patterns, see our guide to subbing in youth soccer or print a ready-made soccer substitution chart.