Guidelines on total playing times for youth tournaments

Tournament match times vary from minimum 10 minutes per match to maximum 90 minutes per match. It is about finding the right balance for your tournament. Generally speaking, the younger the teams the shorter the match time, but shorter and more frequent matches for older teams are becoming more popular.

Using the FA (Football Association of England) guidelines - we recommend that teams should play a maximum amount of minutes per day based on their ages as follows:

U7 & U8 – max 60 mins per day.
For example 4 games per day with match times of 15 mins each, or up to 6 games per day with match times of 10 minutes.
Max time per match: 40 mins. 

U9 & U10 – max 90 mins per day
For example 5 games per day with match times of 18 minutes, or up to 6 games per day with match times of 15 minutes.
Max time per match: 50 mins. 

U11 & U12 – max 120 mins per day
For example up to 6 games per day with match times of 20 minutes, or up to 10 games per day with match times of 12 minutes. Even shorter match times are becoming more popular, for example in Germany, and this would mean up to 12 short games of 10 mins each.
Max time per match: 60 mins. 

U13 to U16 – max 150 mins per day
For example up to 6 games per day with match times of 25 minutes. The shorter match time approach would give options of up to 10 games of 15 minutes each.
Max time per match: (U13 & U14: 70 mins) (U15 & U16: 80 mins)

U17 to U18 – max 180 mins per day.
For example up to 3 games per day with match times of 60 minutes, or up to 6 games per day with match times of 30 minutes.
Max time per match: 90 mins.