This email is a being sent to the Team Contacts alone. We send a lot of emails with constant reminders to everyone. This time, we offer a fuller explanation, and we solicit your help.
All players must be paid and registered PRIOR to playing. No exceptions. None. It’s a MUST.
We need your support in making sure players are registered. (We realize, however, that you cannot be certain they paid, and we have no present remedy for you to do so.) Please continue to ask and remind your players to register and pay. As an adult league, adult players should be responsible enough to ensure registration and payment are completed. As a sanctioned league, registration is paramount. Not only is it a requirement, but it also allows us to be aware of who the players are, and we can apply rules accordingly.
Imagine being punched at your next game. Right smack in the jaw. You’ll struggle to even enjoy a beverage after the game. The referee reports the incident to us so we have the opportunity to suspend the player. Now imagine it was an unregistered player and we can’t do anything about it. They were able to punch you without a formal consequence.
This is dramatic for effect. And we use the term “you” for effect. And it may be dramatic, but there is the potential for it to happen - unfortunately. That leads to point 2.
Discipline infractions and (especially) dissent skyrocketed since COVID. We understand the stress of COVID. And we also understand the frustration of our players from seeing and experiencing the bad behaviour. Our SCHEDULE A has been updated to include ATTEMPTS to punch, as an example. The dissent (especially directed at officials) is bad enough without adding physical infractions of opponents too. Couple the dissent with nasty trash talk, and a game is looking less and less like the recreational adult sports league with intentions to keep players safe, active, and social.
Do you work tomorrow? Does your opponent? Do you/they have kids to take care of and are responsible for? A dog to walk? A Grandma to visit? We all have something we need to do. A dirty act and bad behaviour ARE NOT NECESSARY, WANTED NOR WILL THEY BE TOLERATED. Your actions have consequences.
And now for the abuse of officials. It is, quite frankly, horrendous. Do you realize “you” made the referee cry? ACTUALLY CRY. And now they are nervous for their safety as they leave the centre/field. They need to be escorted. Really consider that for a moment. Referees feel unsafe in our league. They feel unsafe just being present. They are someone’s daughter/son, sister/brother, wife/husband, mother/father, friend. Would you be okay with a man yelling at your mom or daughter like that? (We say a man because almost 100% of our dissent suspensions come from the men in our league.) Would you go to the grocery store and yell at the cashier like that? What would you do if someone yelled at your child or baby brother like that? What would you do if you saw your teammate yelling at someone like that? We are all responsible for our actions, but we can also help deescalate a player’s actions. Please help calm them down. Help remove them from the game.
This email is difficult because most of our players never even receive a yellow card in their lifespan of playing soccer. However, this email is important because some players need to be reminded. By us, by you.
Please also remind your players (and yourselves) that staff are suspending players when they have failed to follow the rules. Whether it be for not paying their registration, not hitting submit on their registration, violent conduct etc. To be clear, we don’t enjoy suspending players. We wish we never needed to do so. However, to be fair to everyone, we must always follow our rules and that includes suspending players for THEIR infractions. Please take responsibility for your actions.
If you have concerns, ideas, criticisms, we want to hear from you. Always. Please contact the appropriate personnel when able. Please do not contact the Referee Association (Saskatoon & District Soccer Referee Association/SDSRAI) directly. Or SYS, SSA, SSC. It is our job to work with our parent/sister associations. We will go the distance for you.
Final quick reminders while we have you: anyone and everyone on the bench MUST be registered - even Team Personnel. They can register as STAFF (Manager, Coach, Trainer) with your team code. Only players and team personnel can be on the bench and must provide present, in your hand, photo ID and not a picture of ID. All players must remove ALL jewellery and must wear shin pads. And finally, all games must start on time. The game may be cut short if the minimum number of players is not met but only up to 10 minutes for this reason alone. Please contact us if your game is not starting on time for any other reason.
THANK YOU for your time in reading this email, and for your further contemplation and assistance in achieving the safe, positive yet competitively fun league we know it can be.
