SBWSO Rules, Regulations, Policies & Procedures

Amended & Approved by SBWSO Board of Directors
April 13, 2004

SBWSO Anti-Discrimination Policy
The Santa Barbara Women's Soccer Organization was created as both a soccer league and community organization and thus will NOT tolerate violent, offensive, insulting or abusive conduct that attacks others based on race, ethnicity, language, creed, ability or sexual orientation. Misconduct that attacks individuals or teams based on personal identity will be considered acts of hate and will be punished by the League in accordance with the following SBWSO Disciplinary Rules & Regulations.

SBWSO Rules & Regulations
All games will be governed by FIFA rules, modified as follows:

1. The League has disciplinary jurisdiction over all teams and players- before, during and after any league-sponsored event at any venue used for SBWSO purposes.

2. When a player receives a yellow card, it will act as a caution.

3. When a player receives a red card, the mandatory suspension shall be a minimum of one game, defined as the next scheduled and played league game. Once a red card has been issued, the player MUST LEAVE THE VENUE AT ONCE. Upon complaint, further action concerning red cards and behavior that has crossed the line from general soccer frustration to behavior deemed unacceptable by SBWSO standards will be determined by the Disciplinary Committee.

4. Any player whose actions seriously damage the reputation or interest of this League may be subject to disciplinary action by the League. Membership may be revoked by a 3⁄4 vote of the Committee.

5. A game incident report may be filed in the case of repeated dangerous play, bad sportsmanship, retaliatory or other behavior which might damage the reputation or interest of the League beyond the scope of FIFA law. Game incident reports should be filed with the Chair of the Discipline Committee.

6. All additions and/or amendments to SBWSO Rules, Regulations, Policies & Procedures must be approved by vote of the Discipline Committee with at least a 2/3 majority but hopefully by complete consensus. The Discipline Committee Chair will present the approved item to the Board of Directors at the following Board meeting, or via email if necessary. If a member of the Board of Directors strongly disagrees with the nature of the approved addition or amendment, she may submit a letter to the Discipline Committee for further consideration and/or review. Once the approved item has been agreed upon by both 2/3 of the Discipline Committee and the Board of Directors, the item will be officially added to SBWSO Rules, Regulations, Policies & Procedures.


Disciplinary Committees

1. A consistent volunteer group shall serve one or more seasons as the Disciplinary Committee and shall consist of at least 2 Managers from each division, but no more than one member of each team unless deemed necessary by the Committee. An elected league member shall chair the Disciplinary Committee, and an official SBWSO paid referee will serve as a non-voting advisor regarding FIFA law. This group will respond to any filed game incident reports, red cards, or other filed complaints regarding players and/or all willing SBWSO participants.

2. In the case of a complaint, a game incident report will be filed with the Chair of the Disciplinary Committee. All proceedings and actions will follow the Disciplinary Committee Procedures.

3. If a complainant seriously disagrees with the decision of the Disciplinary Committee, she has the right to file an appeal. The Disciplinary Appeals Committee, consisting of at least three Team Mangers who are not members of the Disciplinary Committee already and who are not involved in the said complaint, will respond to any filed appeals. The league director shall chair the Disciplinary Appeals Committee, but shall not have voting power. Any decision regarding an appeal must be agreed upon by a simple majority of the committee members. All decisions of the Disciplinary Appeals Committee are final. A SBWSO paid referee will be appointed to serve as advisor to the Disciplinary Appeals Committee each season.


Disciplinary Committee Procedures
This document outlines the steps taken to file and process all game incident reports/ complaints.

A COMPLAINANT is defined to be the person who files the report against another player or team. A DEFENDANT is defined to be the person whom the report was filed against.

1. Complainant submits confidential game incident report to the Chair of the Disciplinary Committee, postmarked or delivered or emailed within 48 hours of the specific incident. Verbal notification should also occur within 48 hours if possible.

2. Discipline Committee Chair receives report and distributes copies to Disciplinary Committee members, referee, defendant, complainant and Managers of the defendant and complainant.

3. If the Chair, advisory referee or any member of the Committee is named in the report as either a complainant or defendant, she/he will remove herself from the Committee in all actions taken regarding the specified complaint and appoint another member of the Committee to serve as Acting Chair. Acting Committee members will be appointed by the Committee to meet the 2 Manager per division minimum if needed.

4. Committee reviews the confidential complaint in person or over email to determine how to proceed with it. Upon review, the Committee has the right to determine if immediate suspension will be required until the case is resolved. Although precedent will be used to help determine how the League was decided on similar matters in the past, each incident will be handled on a case by case basis.

5. If a hearing is deemed necessary by at least one of the Committee members, the Chair contacts Committee members, defendant, complainant and involved managers within 5 days of receiving the report to schedule a hearing date, or sooner if agreed upon by all Committee members.

6. All parties must be given the opportunity to attend the hearing. If a defendant or complainant cannot attend, the person can submit a written statement to be read at the hearing. The Committee will make every effort to accommodate both the defendant’s and complainant's schedule.
7. All parties must be given at least 5 days notice of the hearing date.

8. The hearing will consist of: a case summary presented by Committee Chair, testimony of complainant, testimony of defendant, referee's opinion, discussion, deliberation regarding consequences and a vote by all voting members present. To ensure fairness and authenticity of the voting process, consequence deliberation and voting shall be confidential and limited to voting members only.

9. Verbal and written notification of the decision will be sent to Committee members, defendant, and complainant within 48 hours of the hearing date. Within the 48 hours following a hearing, all deliberations and decisions will be confidential within the voting members of the committee.

10. All appeals must be submitted to the Appeals Committee Chair (League Director) within 5 days of receiving notification of the Disciplinary Committee decision.

11. The same policies & procedures apply to the Appeals Committee and process once the letter of appeal has been sent to the League Director. All decisions of the Disciplinary Appeals Committee are final.