Here’s how the protest process works in ASL. If you wish to have action taken because you believe you have unfairly been booked for misconduct, this is the process you follow. You’re free to call and complain or e-mail and complain. However, filing a protest and appearing before the League Appeals and Disciplinary Committee is the only way you get action taken, as your peers review your case and make a decision.
The Appeals and Disciplinary Committee will be preassigned by team for the entire season. Each Saturday, we will convene an A&D Committee to review protests that have come in during the week. Each week, the panel will consist of a person from one team in each division. If you wish to trade with another team during the week you’re assigned, that’s up to the two teams. The A&D member from the division in which the protest is filed will not vote on the results to avoid a conflict of interest. The Vice President will not vote at all. If the person representing your team does not show up for the A&D hearing, your team gets fined $25, just like missing a league meeting. Protests will still be filed in the same manner. Protests involving red and yellow cards will be due no later than the close of business on Wednesday following the Sunday game in which the card is issued. The hearing will be held the following Saturday, prior to the game being played. If the week is the same week as the monthly ASL meeting, we will hold the hearings at the ASL meeting so people don’t have to attend two meetings in the same week. If you or your team is not represented at the hearing, you lose. You no longer get to keep playing until it’s convenient for you to make the hearing. Your team representative or anyone else can represent you at the hearing.
We will report on the results of the hearings on the web page, including the protest, the basis for its being filed, and the basis for its being overturned if that is the results. The Vice President also will produce a written summation of the protest, including the incident, the grounds of the protest, the results of the hearing, and the basis on which the decision was made. In addition, we will notify the team representative from the opposing team that is involved in the protest. We have discovered that in several protests from the last year that the opposing team had a significantly different version of events than the person filing the protest, but was unaware that the card was being protested. We will also notify the referee of the game involved that his card is being protested. The referee is then entitled to submit any supplemental in-formation related to the incident in time for the Saturday hearing. We’ll publish the results of the protests and the vice president will get to report back to the referee association on the protests that involve the referee decisions.
In order to provide some guidance to the members of the A&D Committee, we have prepared a set of
“jurist instructions” that will provide relevant portions of the FIFA Laws of the Game that relate to the authority of the referee and fouls and misconduct. Protests still cost $ 25. You still get your money back if your protest is upheld. To file a protest you complete the protest form and have it at the ASL office
by close of business on Wednesday. That gives the Vice President time to pick up the protests and have Ann contact the teams scheduled for that week to let them know whether there will be a hearing or not, so they don’t have to come to the office to find out. You do not have to file your protest yourself. Anyone can come in and file your protest. However, it does need to be complete, paid for, and in our hands by the close of business on Wednesday. What we’ve basically done is put some procedure behind the process and formalize it to make it fair for all concerned.
The appointment of the A&D Committee has been removed from the strict oversight of the Vice President
and spread to all teams in the League. The members of the A&D Committee will change each week and they will be provided information that the referee is taught in making decisions during the game. The idea is to provide a fair and impartial forum in which players can get a haring. Referees make mistakes. In some cases, we get the wrong person’s passcard retained by the referee. If the absurd position is maintained that the referee report is sacred and even mistakes have to be upheld, you would discover that the person who is supposed to sit out is playing and some more guy who didn’t do anything sits. That’s not a fair system. By the same token, people who were at the game and have a disagreement with the player’s case that he “didn’t do anything” now have a chance to be at the hearing and explain that “didn’t do anything” and “head-butted my player” are slightly different versions of the same event.
We have encouraged the referees to follow USSF rules and properly report referee abuse incidents. Those are any case in which a player or team manager curses at, threatens or otherwise directs foul or abusive language at the referee. Those events are under the jurisdiction of the New Mexico State Soccer Association, who will be dealing quickly with any of those reports. The protocol required of the United States Soccer Federation in both referee abuse and referee assault calls for the referee to report the incident within 24 hours to both the state association president and the state referee administrator. Referee abuse calls for a minimum three game suspensions and $50 fine. That suspension is automatic. We will forward a letter advising you of the suspension and you can request a hearing on the report. In the alternative,
you can invest $ 300 and appeal the action to the USSF. NMSSA rules also provide that NMSSA can require a player to post a bond to continue playing and that the player can be fined for conduct.
