I had a chat with Paul Scott, Director of Officials at the NPSL today. He's concerned with what he deems to be an unacceptable level of violent conduct of players towards officials. Obviously the goal of the NPSL is to be taken seriously, and with legitimate organizations such as the Jacksonville Armada, it can't afford not to. In that respect, we need to not only institute, but effectively enforce a zero tolerance policy to both punish and deter this behavior. Currently, we're adept an punishment (we simply impose a one game suspension on the offending player), however, this isn't proving effective as a deterrent.
I suggested that we incentivize the behavior we want to see. Just this week, Paul received the green light to start fining players, coaches, and owners for this unwanted behavior. With this in mind, I recommended that each week we collect the fine money and create a pot. The coach who's team has zero red cards for the week earns the pot. See, these coaches make little, if any money coaching in this league. Likewise with the players. If we impose a fine of say $50 or even $100 on the player, and not allow them to return from suspension until payment has been received, we can inflict enough pain to make players reassess their actions (what I call the "hot stove" technique). While today we employ an all stick, no carrot philosophy, by collecting fine money we can add an incentive for coaches to better manage their players.
Before we do anything, obviously we need good data. Paul has asked me collect red card data on violent conduct and abusive language towards officials, then break it down by conference. It will be good to identify our main culprits. Is this truly a league wide issue, or do we simply have a hand full of bad apples?
I had a chat with Paul Scott, Director of Officials at the NPSL today. He's concerned with what he deems to be an unacceptable level of violent conduct of players towards officials. Obviously the goal of the NPSL is to be taken seriously, and with legitimate organizations such as the Jacksonville Armada, it can't afford not to. In that respect, we need to not only institute, but effectively enforce a zero tolerance policy to both punish and deter this behavior. Currently, we're adept an punishment (we simply impose a one game suspension on the offending player), however, this isn't proving effective as a deterrent.
I suggested that we incentivize the behavior we want to see. Just this week, Paul received the green light to start fining players, coaches, and owners for this unwanted behavior. With this in mind, I recommended that each week we collect the fine money and create a pot. The coach who's team has zero red cards for the week earns the pot. See, these coaches make little, if any money coaching in this league. Likewise with the players. If we impose a fine of say $50 or even $100 on the player, and not allow them to return from suspension until payment has been received, we can inflict enough pain to make players reassess their actions (what I call the "hot stove" technique). While today we employ an all stick, no carrot philosophy, by collecting fine money we can add an incentive for coaches to better manage their players.
Before we do anything, obviously we need good data. Paul has asked me collect red card data on violent conduct and abusive language towards officials, then break it down by conference. It will be good to identify our main culprits. Is this truly a league wide issue, or do we simply have a hand full of bad apples?