Unregistered players

[Ross30]

I'm part of the CSL Executive Committee and this issue has kept us rather busy of late. For various reasons I cannot say too much, but I understand why many questions are being asked by clubs. Just to clarify a few things:

- Uni SA were not being accused of playing players under false names;
- Uni SA did fill out team sheets with names and registration numbers;
- In most but not all cases, the players' ID photos were on the CSL website;
- The problem was that a very large number of Uni SA players were not registered on www.myfootballclub.com.au as at 1 August 2015. As at that date, Uni SA only had approximately 32 players registered yet they were fielding 5 teams.
- Those 32 players were predominantly players who were new to the club in 2015 and completed the self-registartion process upon joining the club;
- The remainder of the players had not been registered on www.myfootballclub.com.au for the 2015 season;
- after receiving a list of Uni SA's regsitered players from FFSA and going through all the line-ups, it was evident that every Uni SA team was fielding multiple players on a weekly basis that had not registered in 2015. It was not as if, for example, their 2A and 2B team were all registered but the other players were not;
- Uni SA stated that all players had registered with the Uni SA Sports Asscociation, so they were therefore covered for insurance purposes. However, that is an entirely separate process to registering with the CSL/FFSA;
- Many Uni SA players (again) stated that they were surprised that they were not regsitered for the 2015 season. Perhaps they thought that having a registration number (issued in a past season) means you are registered, I'm not sure;
- Various submissions were advanced by Uni SA but ultimately no satsifactory reason could be provided for why players were playing for their club despite not being registered on www.myfootballclub.com.au ;
- I would like to think that this was more of a case of very poor administration and no-one taking proper responsibility to check things had been done, rather than an outright attempt to cheat. Nonetheless, in view of the unregistered players issue Uni SA had last year, there was little choice but to record all of their games up to 1 August as forfeits, as per the CSL Competition Rules;
- a large number of players were regsitered on www.myfootballclub.com.au for Uni SA last week (when I Received an update last week, they had over 65 registered players). Obviously it is frustrating for everyone that this could not just have been taken care of before the season started, as every other club managed to do;
- Ironically once they finally had enough registered players to legitimately field 4 or 5 teams, Uni SA proceeded to forfeit 3 of their games anyway. TZ managed to convince the 2A and 2B teams to play but my understanding is that the other 3 teams are largely independent groups with many palyers that did not wish to play because of the penalty they had received. The club has been issued with fines in relation to those forfeits.

[crusader_]

How did it get to August before anyone realised what was happening? Do Uni SA have a committee or anyone in charge at all?!

[dash riprock]

Good post Ross... That was needed to make sense for most of the other clubs involved.
Is there any light to be shed on the games this weekend and if they are going ahead / forfeited?

[Ross30]

We still don't know about how many teams Uni SA will field this week or in any future week, unfortunately.
We thought Uni SA would field 5 teams last week but clearly that didn't happen.

We only found out about this whole situation once FFSA sent an invoice to the CSL for player registrations, with a breakdown of how many players were registered for each club.

[gristy]

so were they fined the $100 per player for each ineligible player?

[Squeezy Cheesey Peas]

That would be approx $ 5k fine including the forfeits x 3
Unlikely the fine will be applied as its highly unlikely they will get any money out of them!!
Can't scrape together a proper kit for all the teams...

[Joranger]

That would be approx $ 5k fine including the forfeits x 3
Unlikely the fine will be applied as its highly unlikely they will get any money out of them!!
Can't scrape together a proper kit for all the teams...

Wow man, you sound so bitter.

[gristy]

That would be approx $ 5k fine including the forfeits x 3
Unlikely the fine will be applied as its highly unlikely they will get any money out of them!!
Can't scrape together a proper kit for all the teams...

well he said 32 registered players, for 5 games a week thats minimum of 23 unregistered per week assuming no double ups. so thats more like $27,900 including 3 forfeits..

[dash riprock]

That would be approx $ 5k fine including the forfeits x 3
Unlikely the fine will be applied as its highly unlikely they will get any money out of them!!
Can't scrape together a proper kit for all the teams...

Wow man, you sound so bitter.

As opposed to sounding like a half stoned Hippy 'man'.....

Not as much bitter as hacked off that I / others spend bags of of our own time to follow the rules of the league... make the effort and raise the funds to follow the rules of the game (uniform colors, same color socks etc), play multiple games on a weekend, miles apart to ensure the games go ahead etc etc and these guys just do whatever they fancy... The $27k fine is exactly what the rules state and if they aren't subject to that, then a precedent is set.

[Joranger]

I see that, I just got annoyed about the 5 different posts over 2 different topics. All of which seemed uninformed rants not really adding much to the actual issue at hand.

This is just an error, and has nothing to do with cheating or unfair play. Its been the same group of players (not counting exchange students) who's been playing the whole season, and that will continue playing for the rest of the season.

I've been playing for the the B's the last 3 years, and I've yet to see any of the walk offs/ref intimidation/bad kit that you speak off. I'd also argue our pitch is one of the better ones in div2.