Club rules

Football For Fat Loss is a weight-loss club that plays football — the scales matter as much as the score. Everything here exists so that every player, whatever their level, gets a safe, friendly and genuinely competitive night.

• Everyone's welcome. All shapes, sizes and abilities. No judgement, ever.
• Turn up on time. Arrive early enough to weigh in and warm up before kick-off.
• Encourage, don't criticise. We celebrate effort over ability — a good word lifts the whole session.
• Know your body. Tell the coach about any injury or condition before you play, and stop if something hurts.
• Can't make it? A quick message to your captain helps your team plan.
• Leave it as you found it. Bibs back to your captain, rubbish in the bin.

New players join with a BMI of 27.5 or above — it's a weight-loss league, and the entry gate keeps the competition fair. Once you're in, you stay in: players who drop below 27.5 carry on (and eventually graduate to BMI Boss scoring).

Bring to every session:

• Shin pads — mandatory. No shin pads, no game, no exceptions.
• Footwear to suit the surface: astro trainers or moulded studs (no metal studs).
• A shirt in your team's colour (no hood needed — any sports top works), shorts or tracksuit bottoms, and water.

Nothing dangerous can be worn during play — jewellery, watches, casts and the like come off, and taping over them doesn't count. If you wear glasses, sports goggles or contacts are strongly recommended. The referee has the final say on what's safe.

• Weigh in before you play. No weigh, no play.
• Weigh-ins are private — between you, the scales and the coach. Teammates only ever see goals and percentages, never your weight.
• One weigh-in per week, and the week is worked out automatically from the season calendar.
• Miss the scales and you simply don't contribute scales goals that week — there's no other penalty, but your team feels it, so don't make a habit of it.
• Weighing in after your match doesn't count for that week's scoring. A player found to have played without weighing in first risks forfeiting their team's pitch score for that match.
• Injured? Keep coming to weigh in — your weight loss still earns your team goals while you're out.

Two weights matter, and they're different things:

• Baseline weight — your first-ever weigh-in at the club. All your 5% milestone targets are calculated from this, once, for your whole FFL career.
• Season-start weight — your first weigh-in of each season. Weekly bonuses and own goals are measured against this.

Each week, every weighed-in player scores:

• +0.5 for being below your season-start weight.
• +0.5 when the coach confirms you tracked your food that week.
• +1 hat trick for every three weeks you've lost weight (they don't need to be consecutive). Capped at 4 per season — a hat trick earned past the cap carries into next season.
• +3 for each 5% milestone — every 5% of your baseline weight lost (5%, 10%, 15%…). Each milestone is earned once in your FFL career, at most one per week and two per season; a third carries over and is awarded in week 1 of the next season provided you're still below the target.
• −1 own goal for any week you're above your season-start weight. Exactly on it scores nothing either way.

Habit bonus: pick up to three daily habits each week in the portal and check them off. Hit at least 60% of your check-ins in a week you don't gain and you qualify — every 3 qualifying players earns the team +1 scales goal.

Your team's scales goals for the week are everyone's scores added together (plus the habit bonus), rounded up to a whole number.

Reach a healthy BMI (18.5–25) and you've won your own battle — you become a BMI Boss and switch to maintenance scoring. We no longer encourage you to lose weight; you score by staying healthy:

• +3 one-time bonus the week you first reach a healthy BMI.
• +1 every week your BMI stays in the healthy range — lose, hold or gain, it counts while you stay healthy.
• +1 extra for every three healthy weeks (the maintenance hat trick — no cap).
• −1 own goal for any week your BMI climbs back above the healthy range.

Matches are six-a-side with rolling, unlimited substitutions — get your minutes at your own pace. Match length and night-by-night format are set by the club at the start of the season and stay consistent all season.

Every match is decided by combined goals: pitch goals plus that week's scales goals. Most combined goals wins — win 2 points, draw 1, loss 0. A team can lose on the pitch and still win the match on the scales; that's the whole idea.

Three league tables run all season:

• The league (overall) — ranked on points; ties broken by goal difference, then total scales goals.
• The pitch league — pitch goals only; ties broken by goal difference, then goals scored, then head-to-head.
• The scales league — scales goals only; ties broken by goal difference, then goals scored.

If a team can't field a full side on the night, it may borrow ringers — players from other teams who've opted in on their dashboard, offered in order of their off-pitch (scales) form.

• Each borrowed ringer costs the borrowing team a 2-goal penalty on the night, so borrowing keeps you playing but never beats a full squad.
• A ringer's weigh-in always counts for their own team, never the borrowing team.
• Borrowing is arranged openly — the coach and the opposing captain know who's playing for whom before kick-off. Fielding a player the opposition wasn't told about forfeits the match on the pitch.

• No offside.
• No sliding tackles. Sliding in where an opponent is playing the ball gives away a free kick — control beats aggression, protect each other.
• All free kicks are indirect except penalties. The ball must be still, opponents give 3 metres, and a goal only counts if the ball touches another player on the way in.
• The goal area belongs to the goalkeeper. Outfield players stay out of it; the keeper stays in it. A defender in his own area concedes a penalty (unless pushed or unable to avoid it); an attacker in the area gives away a free kick. A keeper who leaves the area concedes a penalty — with referee's discretion for momentum on a genuine save.
• Keepers distribute by hand. Goal clearances are rolled out underarm, below head height. Keepers can't kick the ball except in making a save, can't hold it longer than six seconds, and can't take a straight return pass — the ball must touch someone else first.
• Restarts: no goal can be scored directly from a kick-off, kick-in, corner or goal clearance — find a teammate first. Kick-ins are taken where the ball went out; defenders give 3 metres on every restart.
• Head height: where the venue requires it, the ball must stay below head height — infringements give an indirect free kick from where the ball rose, except off a goalkeeper's save. The club confirms whether this applies at the start of the season.

We run a two-card system, and it's rarely needed:

• Blue card — a 2-minute sin bin for the usual cautionable stuff: dissent, persistent fouling, delaying restarts, not respecting the 3 metres. A second blue in the same match can be shown at the referee's discretion — or upgraded straight to red.
• Red card — off for the night, no return, no bench: serious foul play, violent conduct, spitting, denying an obvious goal with a deliberate handball, or abusive language. A red card also means missing at least the following match, with the length of suspension decided by the club.
• Zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind and for violence — on the pitch or off it. These go beyond a match suspension to a review of membership.

Games are run by the referee — sometimes that's the coach. They keep time, apply these rules in the spirit of the club, play advantage where it helps the fouled team, and deal with anything these pages don't cover. The referee's decision is final. No ref, no game — respect them and the night works for everyone.