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Palo Alto Adult Soccer League

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From: PAASL BOD

To: All PAASL Players

PAASL continues its modernization of our league and in the interests of transparent operation, the Board is publishing this newsletter to update our players on the progress of these changes. We’ve received both positive and negative feedback on some of the changes we have implemented and will be looking to address a variety of issues in this newsletter. PAASL deeply thanks everyone for their participation and continued support. We encourage all players to continue filling out the Referee Feedback Form and end of session Player Satisfaction Surveys to have your voices heard by the Board.


The following is a summary of content, with lengthier explanations to follow below:


Referee Transition

Check-in Procedures

IFAB Rules Reminders

PAASL Local Rules Update

USSF Affiliation/CSAN

 

Referee Transition

As of January 1, 2018, PAASL is now employing USSF certified referees from a pool roughly twelve times the size of our previous group. In talking with many members of our playing community, we’ve heard both positive and constructive feedback with regards to the new referee pool. Much of the positive feedback includes:

However, we’ve also received constructive feedback:

With the new referee pool has come changes for our PAASL player community. The new referees are more accustomed to conduct and procedures more closely aligned with IFAB Laws of the Game (check-in, jewelry, offsides, etc.). The greatest method to guide and influence our referee community is the Referee Feedback Form, available on our website. All submissions are closely monitored and tracked for data trends. We strongly request all players to regularly submit referee feedback, both positive and negative. To better facilitate this, we have begun automatically emailing several randomized players from each game with the Referee Feedback Form link.

 


Check-in Procedures

The new pre-game check-in continues to be a challenge across PAASL. After a long period of increasingly casual check-in from our previous referee pool, we recognize that players enjoyed and became accustomed to the benefits of showing up right at kick-off to play. However, the Board was beginning to encounter cases of players playing without registering, which reduces playing time for our registered players and puts the League in a difficult insurance situation. Pre-game check-in, as currently outlined by PAASL, is intended to ensure that only validly registered players who have paid their playing fees are permitted to play in games for their particular session.


Although the check-in process is more burdensome than the casual check-in we previously had, PAASL’s check-in process has been designed to be smooth, fast, and both referee and player friendly. Many of the more robust check-in procedures mandated by other local adult and youth groups have not been adopted to maximize efficiency for our players. The best suggestion for all players is to arrive earlier. As reported by various team coordinators, players who arrive even 10 minutes before their scheduled kick-off have more than enough time to get dressed and check-in for a prompt game start.


The check-in process fundamentally relies on Team Coordinators arriving for games with printed rosters in hand or making sure a backup player is available to carry out coordinator duties. PAASL encourages ALL players to print out your team roster card, which is available through the PAASL website, and carry it as a backup. As a community, we can all come together to assist the volunteer team coordinators. Finally, at designated locations at each of our playing fields, blank roster cards will be stored for handwritten rosters if necessary.

 


IFAB Rules Reminders

PAASL follows IFAB/FIFA Laws of the Game. PAASL would like to remind our players of the following rules to reduce player dissent and encourage more play:


Law 3: Substitutions - Players may substitute at any stoppage in play, subject to the referee’s permission.

Law 5: All decisions of the referee are final and must be respected.

Law 11: Offside

Law 12: Sending-Off Offences

 

 

PAASL Local Rules Update

Due to popular demand by both players and referees, the Board has updated a local rule regarding clothing and accessories that can be worn during play. These contradict IFAB Laws of the Game. This has also been posted on the PAASL website.

Equipment Permitted For Wear During Play

A referee may require a player to remove their non-equipment wear should they deem it a danger to the player or other players, even if the non-equipment wear is covered with tape or other clothing. Without exception, PAASL will support all referee decisions in this regard.

USSF Affiliation/CSAN

Looking to ensure the long-term viability of our league, PAASL has long wanted to increase the size and quality of our referee pool. The best way to do that was to tap into the large USSF certified referee community in the local area. To access the twelve times larger, USSF certified referee pool, PAASL must affiliate with USSF.


After over six months of extensive, deliberate, and diligent exploration, it has been decided by the Board that California Soccer Association - North (CSAN) is our best USSF affiliate partner. USSF affiliation is required to ensure our games are officiated by the USSF referees we are currently employing. This was raised in our previous BOD newsletter. CSAN will also provide secondary, gap medical insurance for all our players and help streamline our registration and communication processes moving forward. As a result, joining CSAN is in the best long-term interests of PAASL.


Through their online registration partner Affinity, CSAN requires annual registration by each player at a cost of $32. This is in addition to your registration for each PAASL playing session. To help minimize the financial impact on players, PAASL will be reallocating insurance cost funds to absorb the registration fee for our players over the next two years. We are working on developing an Affinity registration reminder system to remind players to renew their expiring CSAN memberships at the appropriate time. PAASL will transition to CSAN membership cards affixed with PAASL session stickers to be used as player passes starting with our Fall sessions. As a result, referees will not allow a player to play without a valid CSAN membership card with affixed PAASL session sticker under our “No Pass, No Play” policy. This dovetails into our check-in policy to prohibit play of unregistered players. Ultimately, the obligation to ensure each player’s CSAN membership is valid at the time of play will rest with the player individually.


The Board understands and apologizes for placing an additional registration step on our players. However, it is the Board’s belief that this is a large positive step towards modernizing PAASL, having access to the large pool of USSF certified referees on the Peninsula, and ensuring the long-term success of PAASL. We ask for your understanding and support as PAASL continues its path forward.


PAASL Board of Directors