Guidelines 

The event is sponsored by the GSSL, the largest amateur adult men’s soccer league in the United States, which has served the Greater Seattle soccer community for over a century.

Only teams which represent a country are eligible to enter (including the United States).  A ‘country’ is a recognized political entity that is entitled, by international convention, to issue passports and determine citizenry.   The country will be the team name.   With permission of the GSSL, countries who have small communities in the Seattle area can combine to form a joint team.  See player registration below.

Open and Over-35 divisions will be offered.

Prizes:  Winning teams will have their country engraved on the permanent International Cup trophy to be kept at the GSSL office.  Players will be awarded individual trophies.

The team registration fees are $500.00.   There will be no additional fees for teams going into the final rounds.

The tournament will consist of two phases, a round robin and quarter, semi and finals. 

The qualifying round will be held on the 12^th & 13^th of July, 2008 at the Starfire Sports complex.  Each team will play three games of 30 minute halves. 

The top 16 teams from the qualifiers round will advance to the Round of 16 on the 19^th & 20^th of July 2008.  Semifinals and Finals will be held on the 25^th and 26^th, July 2008.  Semifinal and final games will be full, 45-minute half matches with tie breakers (2 ten minute overtime periods followed by penalty kicks).

We will use the world cup format to determine the playing groups.

The number of groups will depend on the number of entries.  However, from the round robin phase of the competition 16 teams will emerge to play the round of 16, semi and final matches will follow the round of 16.  Groups will be organized to yield that number of teams at the end of the round robin.

Top teams will be determined on prior experience, seeded and drawn evenly into the groups

Other teams will be drawn into groups at random with no regional preferences

Two countries, with prior permission of the GSSL, can combine to form one team in the event they do not have enough players to compete otherwise.

The registration rules regarding number of country and foreign players are intended to allow small communities to participate, or allow two countries to combine.

The determination of the eligibility of players and country participants will be made by the GSSL in advance of the start of the competition.  There will be no appeals allowed regarding player or team eligibility during the play of the tournament.