Hello everyone! It is now just ONE WEEK until the 2026 World Cup kicks off in Mexico City. Back in March we held a Meta Thread which covered a wide range of issues - from highlights posting, to transfer rumours, and our approach to moderating major tournaments. We have been hard at work behind the scenes reviewing the feedback and implementing some changes that we hope will make this community a better place - read below for an overview… and fair warning, as the planned changes will go live as of tonight (4th/5th June, depending on your time zone). Welcome to our new mod recruits Firstly, we would like to introduce our “summer temps”, who are joining the most self-important janitors on the internet to help out with the extra mod work that comes with a major tournament, and who we hope bring added diversity and perspective to our team. They’ve already been ‘on-boarded’ (i.e. have joined the mod Discord) - so thank you for their invaluable help so far, and please join us in welcoming: u/NotASalamanderBoi u/swannyhypno u/Moug-10 u/Mulderre91 Note: if you applied to be a mod and were not selected this time, watch this space, as you will remain on our short list for next recruitment drives (if still interested). New user flair process We are also excited to announce that we have a new (and hopefully less buggy) process to set your user flair - although the “comment method” is still in use). Please see the wiki page here for full detail - and check out the new “Flair Hub” here. Thank you to u/jiraiya--an for their excellent work with this. Key rule changes: Following the meta thread, we have decided on a few key policy changes relating to some hot recent issues - which you can read about below. “Brand Accounts” Our full policy can be read here - which is now formalised as a specific rule. Essentially, we define a "Brand Account" as ones representing media outlets, companies or brands. The policy is that they are allowed to post in r/soccer providing specific criteria are met. This criteria includes: Using a flair that denotes their account and content as brand affiliated A limit on number of posts per month they can make Contribution to the community in the form of AMAs or other exclusive content Absolutely no “commercial” content (See the link for the full criteria) We believe this policy offers the “best of both worlds” - where r/soccer can benefit from Brand Accounts, but they are not given extra privileges beyond regular members of the community, and still adhere to the Reddit spam and self-promo guidelines. Fabrizio Romano This may be more controversial… Following feedback from the meta thread, we have decided against an outright ban on Romano content - but instead plan to limit his content posted here, offering a compromise between ensuring news of value to the wider community is available, whilst minimising his platforming on r/soccer. The call for a ban is because Romano has become an increasingly controversial figure in the football media world, with concerns expressed by many about his alignment with Mason Greenwood, and monetisation of the tragic deaths of Diego Jota and Andre Silva. This was strongly considered - as Romano’s actions contravene our subreddit ethos, as explained in the Community Guidelines. However, we recognise his value in news that is of note to the community, especially non-Anglosphere football. As such, only Romano content which represents breaking and/or exclusive news not readily available via alternative sources will be allowed, and in the most part this will relate to concrete transfer and contract news only. This is is called the “Here We Go” exemption We recognise that some users may use this precedent to argue for bans/restrictions of other morally questionable sources - and there is precedent for this, as The Sun has long been banned from this subreddit, due to their misreporting of the Hillsborough disaster. We will continue to review such requests on a case-by-case basis, and issue bespoke guidance following. Updated Submission Guidelines and Community Rules We have also undertaken a long-overdue review of the r/soccer Submission Guidelines and Community Rules. Many of these were outdated, and did not reflect policy changes over the years, or accurately represent how we practically moderate the subreddit. By updating them, we have attempted to clarify but also streamline the rules - which had become something of a Frankenstein monster, and was a source of confusion to users, and at times inconsistent amongst the mod team. The Submission Guidelines relate to rules around the content that is posted. The Community Rules relate more to how users conduct themselves in the subreddit. We strongly encourage that people to check out the updated rules, which are also available in the sidebar of both the old and new Reddit version of r/soccer, and our wiki page. None of it should be a particular surprise to regular users, as they are essentially the rules we have been applying for a long time, but we would not want you to be caught out. These will now also be available as report reasons for user reports, and also cited as ban reasons/removal reasons on both Old and New Reddit, in order to improve our consistency and clarity There are two key changes to the Submission Guidelines that we would like to highlight: Highlights posting See here for full detail. We have decided to adopt a stricter criteria for the match highlights posted on r/soccer, as there has been increased complaints about the “non events” posted from any and every match from the biggest teams and leagues - which dilutes out more valuable content from other teams and leagues. We have also changed the recommended format for titles of highlights clips (see the link) - and have separated the post flairs required into “Match Clip” and “Goal Clip” in order to allow people to more specifically filter content. Post flairs On a related note, we have reviewed the list of available “post flairs” that submissions should be tagged with - reviewing some that are not defunct, and adding a few of value. Please see the full list and explanation of when to use here. If you are a regular content submitter it is essential you avail yourself of this information - as the flairs are key to important AutoMod functions, and incorrect post flairs risk your content being removed, with repeat offenders being banned. New Community Guidelines (Subreddit Ethos) As well as the Submission Guidelines and Community Rules, we have also introduced what we are calling our “Community Guidelines” - which is less specific rules, and more an overview of the key principles we use to guide our moderation and shape the community. /r/soccer has long prided itself on its progressive ideals, and of being a space that is actively anti-discrimination, and pro-tolerance - of people of every race, gender, sexuality and creed. Rather than being "soft" however, we are hard line with this stance - and take a zero tolerance policy to discrimination of any variety. Sport does not exist in a vacuum - football has to be considered in the social, political and cultural context around it. The world around us is increasingly defined by extremism, with the tone set by those who wish to make people not like them unwelcome. We believe the only way to combat this is through active anti-discrimination - and this shapes our entire Subreddit Ethos, which can be seen in full as the Community Guidelines. It is crucial to be aware of this - as people who violate this ethos, are not welcome in r/soccer. The /r/soccer stance on gambling and betting Yesterday, u/Moug-10 wrote this brilliant piece on the harms of betting in sports, which we urge everyone to check out as a crucial PSA - whether you gamble or not. We have also updated the wiki with our official stance on gambling, please check it out here. The key headlines are that although discussing your flutters is allowed, any content which promotes gambling is not. We also recognise the harms of gambling in sport - and support the legislation against the advertising of gambling in football. The wiki page also contains links to support and resources for those who may need it. World Cup briefing Traffic and content from major tournaments requires some specific approaches and policy... Preview Series We will be posting our official World Cup Preview Series in the build-up to the tournament, over the coming days - this is a collaborative project between volunteers from the mod team and the community, and is being coordinated by u/jiraiya--an. Thank you to everyone who has contributed! Hub As for previous tournaments, each day of the World Cup we will sticky a "World Cup Hub” where you will find links to match threads, discussion threads, and other useful content. This is designed as your “first port of call” for all things World Cup. Bandwagon flairs Excited to announce the much loved “bandwagon” flairs are back, but new and improved. This means you can jump on the “bandwagon” of a national team that is not your own - whether that’s because your team is not participating, your team has been knocked out, of you just *really* want to support whoever it is that England are playing… Once the tournament kicks off, the bandwagon flairs will be available via our new Flair Hub. Restrictions In 2022, we imposed extra account and content restrictions for the World Cup in Qatar. The goal of this was to attempt to filter out especially low-quality content, brigaders, and other bad faith actors, at a time of incredibly high traffic - which is generally correlated with a decrease in the quality of discourse. This includes AutoMod removal of low age and karma accounts, and Reddit’s in-built “Crowd Control” feature - as well as the use of “restricted mode” to control the stream of traffic immediately after full-time of headline fixtures. The overall intent was an attempt to “protect” the (admittedly always falling) standards in the subreddit, in the interests of the users who most frequently participate in r/soccer - rather than the “influx of casuals and trolls” we typically see at major tournaments. This does mean that newer users who may be joining just for the World Cup are not as able to participate - so to an extent is “gatekeeping” the subreddit. However, these users are still able to use r/football and r/WorldCup - and Reddit presents the latter as their landing spot for World Cup content, as such. We think this is especially important ahead of the 2026 World Cup - which as well as being bigger than ever before, is also expected to attract numerous political and social controversies, which are at highest risk of being brigaded. As such, we will re-impose the previous restrictions, and will also implement level 4 of Crowd Control for the tournament. This means that as well as our own account age and comment karma restrictions, comments from accounts not subscribed will also be filtered out. It will not be perfect, and there will be an inevitable lowering of the bar as there is at any major tournament, but it is probably the best we can do. Other points of note: Getting rid of the Non Premier League Daily Discussion Thread - for good After many years of disuse, and half-hearted attempts at resurrections, we have finally accepted there just is not the interest or traffic for a dedicated “Non Premier League” stickied thread. We have tried stickying it more often, less often, on different days, and with different titles - but the uptake just is not there. It will now be officially removed from our rotation of stickied threads. RIP. New design (for World Cup and beyond) Thanks to u/jiraiya--an we are also launching a brand new subreddit design for the World Cup - which will become the platform for new themed designs in the future. We know that traditionally the people of r/soccer like a minimalist approach - so this is designed with that in mind on both old and new Reddit. Remember too, if you *really* don’t like it, you can always turn off subreddit styles in your Reddit preferences. Banner pictures Our header banners for the World Cup will be based on the FIFA posters for each host city, as our theme. /r/soccerbanners had been broken for a little while, but /u/jiraiya--an waved their magic wand, and now it's fixed! This means that once again, approved users can submit images from the world of football to /r/soccerbanners, and they will rotate as the "sidebar image" for all to see. If you would like to become an approved submitter, simple visit /r/soccerbanners and message the mods via the link in the sidebar there. Updated sidebar Finally, as well as the subreddit having a different look, the sidebar also looks a bit different now. The key new change is a list of upcoming/live matches - which we can only see as a positive. For ongoing games it will show live score and time, and is available in both Old and New Reddit. We have also tidied up the sidebar, getting rid of some dead links, and introducing some new quick links that we think are of most value to the community. Overall we think it looks tidier, and is more useful - we hope you think so too. Wiki and FAQ update (Finally finally) - this is an ongoing project, which we hope to have finished soon. All of these policy changes and updates means the wiki page and FAQ also need to be brought in line - and so this work is going on in the background too, and will soon reflect all of the key information necessary to get the most out of r/soccer. And that’s all folks! (It is a lot)   submitted by   /u/AnnieIWillKnow [link]   [comments]