Regular Season Match Delay & Postponement
The determination of whether a match is considered "delayed" or "postponed" shall be made by the League Office in its sole and absolute discretion.
Once the League Office has made a determination that a match is "postponed," the League Office shall issue an official communication confirming the match is "postponed." Matches may be delayed or postponed when circumstances exist such that the start or continuation of play would pose a threat to the safety of participants or spectators.
Regular Season Match Postponement After Roster Exchange and Prior To Kickoff
In cases where a match is postponed prior to kickoff, but after the Official Match Roster exchange, clubs will be permitted to change their roster regardless of whether the rescheduled match occurs on a date prior to or after the next match in either club’s schedule.
Regular Season Restart of a Postponed Match After Kickoff
The recommenced match must restart on the same spot where the postponed match action occurred (i.e., free-kick, throw-in, goal kick, corner kick, penalty, etc.). If the match was stopped during the normal flow of the game, a dropped ball on the spot where it was postponed shall be used to restart.
Players
- The match shall recommence with the same players on the field and substitutes available as when the match was initially postponed. For example, if a player receives a red card and reduces his club to 10 players on the field before the match is postponed, his club cannot replace him and will resume the postponed match with 10 players.
- The club’s Official Match Rosters are frozen on the match recommencement day, subject to the exceptions below.
- No additional substitutes may be added to the list of players on the Official Match Roster.
- The teams can only make substitutions to which they were still entitled when the match was postponed (except as provided below and in the case of a subsequent injury and/or unavailability).
Injured or Unavailable Players
During the MLS Regular Season, any player in-play at the time the match was postponed, who is subsequently injured or unavailable due to a trade, loan or transfer before the resumption of the match and cannot participate can only be replaced by a substitute on the Official Match Roster of the postponed match (subject to the goalkeeper exceptions below). In the MLS Regular Season, such substitute will NOT count against a team’s normally allotted substitutions or one of their three substitution events. For any open substitute position(s) in a recommenced match that was originally filled for the postponed match but is now vacant due to an injury or unavailable Player, Clubs may place any Player(s) from their active Club roster as of the date of the postponed match on the match day roster as a substitute(s). Moving a Player from the Club’s roster as of the date of the original match directly into the starting lineup is prohibited, unless done via a pre-match substitution or in the case of a Goalkeeper Exception.
Goalkeeper Exceptions
- trade, loan or transfer) for the match recommencement, the backup goalkeeper from the postponed Official Match Roster is inserted into the match without using a substitution or substitution event. An additional goalkeeper can be added to the substitutes’ bench from the team’s eligible active roster, which does not count as a substitution or an event.
- If the backup goalkeeper from the postponed match is unavailable (e.g., due to injury, trade, loan or transfer), an additional goalkeeper can be added to the substitutes’ bench from the club’s active roster as of the day of the original match and can be used as long as the club has a substitution remaining and a substitution event.
- If the starting goalkeeper is subbed out of the match prior to postponement and is replaced by the backup goalkeeper, the club must complete the recommenced match with only the backup goalkeeper. No allowances will be made to add an additional goalkeeper to the Official Match Roster as a substitute.
- If the backup goalkeeper is substituted into the postponed match for the starting goalkeeper and the backup becomes unavailable (e.g., due to injury, trade, loan or transfer) for the recommenced match, a goalkeeper from the eligible active roster as of the day of the postponed match can be inserted into the match without using a substitution or substitution event. The starting goalkeeper who was substituted out of the postponed match is not eligible. No allowances will be made to add an additional goalkeeper to the Official Match Roster as a substitute or substitution event.
