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Each team may continue to play with seven field players. Starting with eleven, that means four of them may be sent off and still continue. Further, substitutes and substituted players may be sent off, but this does not affect the total number of field players. A team may nominate up to seven substitutes to sit on their bench, and the game may lawfully continue if all seven are sent off, for a total of eleven per team, and a grand total of twenty-two.

A soccer match absolutely must be stopped if 23 people have been sent off and shown the red card, with the assumptions listed above.

The fewest red cards that may force a match to be stopped is 5, reducing a single team to six field players.

Note that the referee may terminate or abandon the match at any time, and will most likely do so long before this level is reached. Also, it is possible for the referee to continue showing red cards after the match has been terminated or abandoned. This means that it is technically possible for 36 red cards to be shown before, during, and after a given match.

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12y ago

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