It May Get Dry Yet?Don't Give Up Hope - Albuquerque Soccer League

Page 32ASL Appeals And Disciplinary SystemASL NewsGenerally, those of you who will read thispage probably don’t need to. For theremainder of you who will show up at theA&D Committee on invitation, we’ll handit to you to read then.Each Team Representative is provided acopy of the League Constitution, By-Laws, Rules and Regulations at thebeginning of the year. They are also availableon our web site. We are now evenproviding those documents in Spanish.Among other things that are included inthose documents are the rules under whichwe run the League and maintain a certaindegree of discipline over the less sociallydesirable of you who may elect to play.If you are new to ASL, we have had numerousmentions in the local and nationalpress regarding a fairly vicious attack onone of our referees by an ASL coach andspectators. While the team was disbandedand the coach removed and convicted offelony assault, we continue to enjoy thelegacy created by this incident in variousnational publications related to soccer.Therefore, any referee assault or abuse isgoing to be dealt with quickly and severely.We offer this notice up front foranyone who will visit us later in the seasonregarding this type of behavior.The appeal process for individuals seekingto overturn referee actions is fullydescribed on page 8, so we won’t repeat ithere. We have eliminated the teampenalty point system that had been in placesince the inception of the League. Thereason for doing that was because it quiteoften created a volatile atmosphere atgames that led to actions that could betterbe avoided by dealing with the individualsresponsible.We still have a Penalty Point system inplace designed to punish problem playersThe provisions of that Penalty Pointsystem are pretty simple. You get thefollowing penalty points as an individual:Caution - 5 pointsSend Off - 10 pointsFighting Send Off - 20 pointsWhen you accumulate 25 penalty pointsin a season, you are suspended for theremainder of the season. If you transferto another team during the season, youtake your penalty points with you.Each time you receive a yellow card, thereferee is instructed to cut the corner ofyour card. When you get three cornerscut, the referee keeps your card andreturns it to the League office. You aresuspended for a game and can come pickup your card following your one gamesuspension. When you get a red card,we punch a hole in your passcard. Thereferee can then determine that you haveaccumulated 25 penalty points, at whichtime the referee confiscates your card,returns it to the League, and you’re donefor the season. As the spring season runsthrough May, that means you’re alsosuspended and ineligible for the StateCup soccer tournamentIn addition, a red card gets you a $ 10fine and a 1 game suspension. Afighting send off gets you a two gamesuspension and $ 10 fine. If you get twored cards in a season, you are suspendedfor two games following the second redcard. A red card for serious foul playnow gets you a two game suspensionand $25 fine and a red card for violentconduct gets you a three game suspensionand $50 fine.If you have a fan disturbance ormultiple members of your team areinvolved in a fight, your team gets topost a $ 1,000 cash bond to continueplaying. If you have no furtherproblems with fans during the nexttwelve months, you get your bond back.If you have another problem, you forfeityour bond and your team is dispatchedfrom the League and the ExecutiveCommittee determines under what termsindividual players can play.If you object to the outcome of yourgame, you are entitled to file a protestwith the League. It must be received byWednesday following the game and beaccompanied by a $ 25 protest fee. Ifyour protest is upheld, your $ 25 isreturned. If not, it is forfeit. This helpsweed out the simple whiners from peoplewho firmly believe they have alegitimate complaint.If you forfeit a game because you don’thave enough players at game time, youget a letter fining you the game fee,payable by Thursday before your nextgame. Half the fine is returned to theteam who did not get a game. If youdon’t pay, we start forfeiting your futuregames.Finally, if you assault a referee, you willbe suspended for a minimum of one yearfrom all soccer play and fined a minimumof $250. If you direct foul andabusive language towards a referee, orthreaten a referee, you will be suspendedfor a minimum of three games, inaddition to the red card you probably gotin the process, and be fined $50. Youwill be notified by mail of yoursuspension and can then request ahearing. If you direct racial slurs at thereferee, your suspension for refereeabuse will be well in excess of 3 games.Referee assaults and referee abuse fallunder the provisions of national rulesand rules of the New Mexico State SoccerAssociation. In addition to the minimumone-year suspension provided forthe in the national rules, NMSSA rulesprovide for monetary fines and other actionsto discourage your behavior in thefuture. We have enough problems trainingand keeping referees and generallydon’t make an effort to encourage peoplewho engage in this behavior to stickaround the League.Finally, if you are suspended from oneNMSSA affiliate, you are suspendedfrom all member leagues in New Mexico,which means you don’t get to headup to Santa Fe to play for the summer ifyou’re suspended from ASL. Conversely,if you’re suspended from SantaFe or the summer men’s league here, youdon’t get to come back and play in ASLin the fall until you’ve completely servedyour suspension.