Fines

1.) If a player receives a red card for any reason on a Sunday (during the match, before the match or after the match), then the red card match report will be sent to the Vice-President.

• All red cards will be sent to the Vice President.

• Any red card is considered to be a serious offense.

• You must treat the issuance of any red card as a serious offense, even if the match official verbally tells you otherwise.

2.) You must review the match report sent by League Admin to determine that the match official reported the red card.

• A copy of the Incident report will be emailed to the Team Manager. This is your notice of the reasons for the red card.

• The Incident report will be the evidence the Vice President and will be accepted as true.

• Submit any witness statements to be used for D&P review of your incident.

• If you do not notify the TORSO admin, then you may not argue that you did not receive a copy of the incident report as an excuse for not submitting any statements.

3.) You have until 11:59 p.m. on the Wednesday following the Sunday (when the red card was issued) to of intent to file a protest or grievance to the Vice President within 72 hours after the game concerned.

• Protests and grievances must be filed in writing with the Vice President accompanied by a $25.00 filing fee (bond).

• Once the league admin verifies payment has been made, the Vice President shall assemble a D&P committee to review your case

• You may request a (virtual) live oral hearing.  If you request an (virtual) oral live hearing, then the timetable for that hearing will be determined by the D&P Committee separately. Each oral live hearing will proceed along its own unique timetable. Each player and team is responsible for making sure that they understand what that unique timetable is.

• If the protest is upheld by the Committee, the fee will be returned. If the protest is denied, the fee will be forfeited to the treasury of TORSO.

4.) You have until 11:59 p.m. on the Thursday following the Sunday (when the red card was issued) to submit whatever evidence electronically that you want the Vice President/D&P Committee to consider.

• This is your notice of the Thursday deadline to submit any evidence

• THERE IS NO LONGER ANY EXCUSE THAT YOU DID NOT RECEIVE NOTICE OF THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT EVIDENCE

• The evidence may consist of email or other written statements along with any other evidence that you want the Vice President to address

• The statements should address the reasons for the red card set forth in the match report.

5.) By the following Wednesday, if no protest of card, the Vice President will announce their decision.

• The decision may be that time served is the only sanction or the decision may be that the player has to sit out multiple matches.

• In the rare event of a conflict of interest presented by ONLY the following two scenarios, the Vice president will assemble a D&P Committee to determine the decision, of which the Vice President will not be a voting member:

  • The Incident involves the Vice President or a Board Member

  • The incident Involves an active player of the Vice President’s team roster.

6.) Process for Appealing a D&P Decision

• Per Article IX. Section 6 of the Bylaws: The Board has limited authority to review any decision of the Vice President and/or D&P Committee. The Board may not veto or amend any decision of the Vice President and/or D&P Committee. The Board may review any decision of the Vice President and/or D&P Committee and if, during that review:

  • The Board finds that due process did not exist or that the decision or penalty of the Vice President and/or D&P Committee is unfair, unjust, manifestly inconsistent or unacceptable, then the Board shall uphold the appeal and ask that a new panel of the D&P Committee conduct a new hearing as provided in Section 8, or

  • The Board finds that due process did exist and that the decision or penalty of the Vice President and/or D&P Committee is fair, just, consistent and acceptable, then the Board shall deny the appeal and enforce the decision as rendered by the Vice President and/or D&P Committee.

7.) Within ten days of Vice President/D&P Committee decision:

• Player requesting decision appeal must pay $50 deposit (either posted to team ledger or written check endorsed to TORSO) and…

• Send an email to TORSO president at president@torsosoccer.org providing new evidence compelling a second hearing. Only cases with new evidence will be considered for appeal.

• TORSO Board Members (President, Commissioner and Referee Liaison) will discuss if the newly-provided evidence is sufficient to warrant gathering a new D&P committee to reassess the case.

• If it is the decision of the Sr. Board Members that the new information DOES NOT warrant a new hearing, the requesting player will be notified and the $50 deposit will not be refunded.

• If it is the decision of the Sr. Board Members that the new information DOES warrant a new hearing, the requesting player will be notified of the new hearing date, and the $50 deposit will be refunded.

Probation

As part of any given D&P ruling, a period of probation may be given along with or independent of a player suspension. To clarify the concept of Probation, the following definition shall be used:

Definition: When a player receives a period of probation as part of a sanction, then if that player receives a yellow or red card for any reason during the period of probation, then that player is suspended for the entire period of probation starting with the next match no matter when the booking occurs.

For example, assume Player X receives a period of probation of five matches. If Player X then receives a booking for any reason over the next five matches (even if the booking occurs at the 90th minute of the last match of the period of probation), then Player X is automatically suspended for the next five matches. The suspension starts on its own without any further ruling or action by the Vice President, D&P Committee, Board, or other person.

If the booking received during the period of probation is for an illegal substitution, for an illegal handing of the ball, or for a similar non-violent, non-aggressive or non-abusive violation of the Laws of the Game, then automatic suspension is still in place, but the suspended player may request the Vice President to reinstate the period of probation. There is no guarantee that the Vice President will reinstate the probation under such circumstances or any other circumstances.