Dear MSL RoboCup Teams,
There are major upcoming changes to RoboCup Soccer that affect the MSL and its members.
What is Happening?
To start, the trustees are taking substantial action to streamline RoboCup Soccer in pursuit of the 2050 goal of playing a match against the World Cup winner. The first and most substantial change is that all soccer leagues will be converging on humanoid (bipedal) robots by 2028. The new leagues will be related to humanoid robotics and simulation only. The Middle Size League will no longer be a major category event after the 2027 RoboCup (the MSL will be at the 2027 event, and not at the 2028 event and after). This is true for many of the other leagues, and there will be substantial changes to the humanoid rules and non-soccer events as well. The official press release from the RoboCup federation can be found here: https://www.robocup.org/news/181
The MSL community has several transition paths forward. We understand each team is unique, and will have team specific concerns.
We have explicitly been told by the trustees we are invited to continue our league under the RoboCup name at regional events after 2027, in regional competitions such as the Portuguese Open or a Euro-Asian Open in December. The trustees have also begun a transition plan for teams who would like to switch to one of the humanoid leagues and remain on the world event stage. For teams looking to transition quickly, the trustees are working to get discounts and collaborative use of commercial bipedal robot platforms. Here is a link for teams interested in these platforms (https://robotprogram.robocup.org/). We will communicate additional details about the humanoid rules and transition assistance as it becomes available. Expect additional communication directly from the governing bodies of global RoboCup.
We understand these are big changes and they may come as a surprise to all of you. The committee members decided the new direction during this year’s RoboCup, as the overall desires of the RoboCup trustees became more clear. What to expect in the coming weeks.
Obviously, things will be changing. T*he trustees will be hosting a meeting with soccer Execs on Thursday 17th September*. We will keep you informed of what will be proposed and discussed.
*To prepare this meeting, we would like MSL teams to send us ideas and proposals on how the huge work done by teams in MSL can help for going toward 2050 RoboCup objectives more efficiently, and what can be adopted in humanoid league to make transition from MSL easier*.
A MSL meeting will be organised following the Exec meeting so that we can discuss all together of what can be the future of MSL and how we can contribute altogether. Falcons team proposed a schedule for that meeting : Wednesday 24th 2025, starting at 8:00 p.m. Would it be ok for your teams ?
Best regards,
The MSL Executive committee