On Monday night, Ally and I attended the bi-annual CCSL Captain’s Meeting. Kudos to Commissioner Sanjay Nayar and his exec team for teeing up all the agenda items so well. The whole exec team deserves praise for locking down the fields early, keeping fees the same, and generally running the league smoothly.
34 of 36 teams attended.
Sanjay gave a golf clap to last season’s winners: Premier – FC Benchwarmers (playoffs), Conquistadors (regular season); 1st Division – Mall Rats, Washington Wanderers; 2nd Division – Hoover FC; 3rd Division – Capital Crew, Tsunami Naranja.
Based on these standings, there was a lot of promotion and relegation. Mall Rats and Washington Wanderers were promoted to Premier, and Spicy Walruses and Backdraft were relegated to 1st. Hoover FC and DC Divided moved up to 1st, Little Urban Achievers and Gang Green went down to 2nd. Capital Crew moved up to 2nd, Far Post and Funky Town went down to 3rd. Tsunami, who would ordinarily have been entitled to promotion based on its finish, was not able to move up because there are an odd number of teams in 2nd division. We had 10 teams but the exec team wanted to go back down to 9 teams. This is possible because ClareAndDons and Two Left Feet from third division are merging forces. Now there are 9 teams in each division.
Members of DC United and the resurrected Washington Freedom attended. CCSL will be launching a new website, with dedicated links to buy tickets. As usual, we get discounted tickets and a cut for every ticket we purchase through CCSL. Buy your pro soccer tickets through our league website. We've got a great guy in Zach Walker for tickets.
The schedule will be done within a week. We have all the fields we need. We’ll be playing at Trinity, St. Stephens, GMU High School, some Arlington fields, the Marina, and the Mall. We are working on two fields controlled by DC Parks & Rec, one of which is the Marine Barracks in Southeast. Games start March 29th. We’ll have 8 games, a bye week, and two weeks off for Easter and Memorial Day Weekend. I did a post on the schedule a few weeks ago.
The Coed Cup will happen again on October 23, 2009 in Dallas.
Online registration for the league will probably happen by Fall.
The summer league will probably happen again this year. Maybe we’ll do it.
Our budget is “healthy” according to the outgoing Treasurer. Each season, teams contribute to a field fund, which has about a $35,000 balance right now. The money is invested in CD’s. The league is hoping some day to enter into a long term lease agreement or purchase a field or something.
League dues were collected from the captains. Make sure to get your share to me soon, because I had to write a fat check.
The league will continue to enforce a $200 fine for forfeits. We have to notify the league by Wednesday COB to avoid the fine and have a chance to reschedule.
The league will continue to enforce a $500 fine for not supplying a ref that makes himself/herself available for 5 games per season. We’ve got two right now – Jer and Liam.
Rosters are due by the 4th week of the season. We have 25 players, with overages to 30 for a $25 fee per person. We amended the league by-laws to allow the substitution of one player for injury reasons, for a $25 fee. The substitution must be made before week 6.
The refs are getting ready. No jewelry. There’s a new ref certification class starting April 1st if you’re interested. We are paying Center Ref’s $55 per match, the AR’s $40 per match. We have a new rule this season. Slide tackles in the box that deny a goal scoring opportunity will result in a direct kick (PK). I helped to convince the captains to vote to remove a provision that would have essentially added a red card to the offense.
That’s it.
Good job Pete on the recap.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming the slide tackle in the box rule applies to a legit slide tackle that gets the ball first and the player only incidentally. Since slide tackles are not allowed, then I agree with the new rule allowing for a PK. And good job Pete keeping the red card on that situation in the Ref's pocket.
Of course, people (like me) still deserve a red card who slide tackle in the box from behind without getting the ball ;)
Pete,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear about the new rule. Essentially, it adheres to the spirit of the law without adding an undue punishment of a red card. You made the right call advocating to remove that provision.
As for my experience with slide tackles in the box denying a goal scoring opportunity, I think I remember calling maybe one in all of the games I've done. My interpretation of a slide tackle is very specific, you must be sliding to tackle the ball from a player. For instance, a slide to save the ball off of the line with your feet, with no one in possession of the ball is not a slide tackle in my opinion. I may ask for some clarification in that regard, because I've seen that happen far more often and I would hope we, as referees, won't be called upon to award a PK for such a play. Slide tackle to remove possession from an attacker, I'm fine with rewarding a PK for that.
DC Divided promoted to 1st? Wasn't that Sanjay's team? They weren't that good...
ReplyDeleteHey guys, I believe the new rule is as follows. The last few lines contain the new language.
ReplyDeleteSection 9. There are no slide tackles. A slide tackle is punished with an indirect free kick (or a direct free kick if also a foul under FIFA Laws of the Game). The referee has the discretion to issue a caution (yellow card) for a slide tackle. A slide tackle in the penalty area by a defender against an attacker that denies an obvious scoring opportunity will result in the award of a penalty kick.