The fol­low­ing Code of Con­duct (here­in­after referred to as the “Codes”), forms the basis of the policies for the SCFC.

These Codes for viol­a­tion, apply to all reg­u­lar sea­son games, Area Tour­na­ment games and to any prac­tices or oth­er activ­it­ies con­duc­ted or sanc­tioned by SCFC or which occur on premises owned by, ren­ted to, occu­pied by, or used by SCFC.

The Codes shall apply to all coaches, spec­tat­ors, play­ers, and ref­er­ees par­ti­cip­at­ing in the SCFC pro­grams. Viol­a­tions of these codes may res­ult in dis­cip­lin­ary actions.

The Codes shall be pos­ted on the SCFC web site and shall be provided upon request to any rep­res­ent­at­ive of any oth­er per­son, team, or organ­iz­a­tion. These Codes shall be bind­ing upon any per­son, team, or organ­iz­a­tion.

The Codes of Con­duct shall be enforced by the mem­bers of the SCFC Board.

Any per­son found to be in viol­a­tion of these Codes by the judg­ment of the SCFC Board could face dis­cip­lin­ary action, not lim­ited to expul­sion from the SCFC pro­gram.

The pur­pose of the Codes is to ensure the enjoy­ment of the chil­dren and fam­il­ies that par­ti­cip­ate in the SCFC by provid­ing a safe envir­on­ment that pro­motes fair play and sports­man­ship.

Board Mem­bers must be eth­ic­al lead­ers and uphold the Guidelines of SAFA, SCFC and gen­er­al ten­ets of good sports­man­ship. Fail­ure to do so can lead to expul­sion.

NOTE: SCFC Teams which inter­play with teams from oth­er Areas may also be sub­ject their Codes and Con­duct

CODE OF ETHICS AND CONDUCT FOR COACHES AND ASSISTANT COACHES

The pos­i­tion of coach or lead­er of any youth group is an import­ant and ser­i­ous respons­ib­il­ity. All the chil­dren look up to the coach and respect their pos­i­tion. The beha­vi­or of the coach is con­stantly under obser­va­tion by them and they will strive to imit­ate the coach’s actions. Remem­ber always that you are help­ing mould the char­ac­ter of your play­ers. The coach’s voiced opin­ions and beha­vi­or dur­ing the game will carry more weight than any­one else’s, even that of a par­ent. A respons­ible coach will con­duct him­self or her­self using the fol­low­ing guidelines.

SCFC coaches:

• Encour­age play­ers to have fun at all times.
• Focus on praise and encour­age­ment rather than on cri­ti­cism and neg­at­ive yelling.
• Place the emo­tion­al and phys­ic­al well-being of play­ers ahead of a per­son­al desire to win.
• Provide a safe play­ing envir­on­ment for all play­ers.
• Encour­age fair play and good sports­man­ship, lead­ing by example.
• Organ­ize prac­tices that are fun and chal­len­ging to play­ers.
• Enhance under­stand­ing of the game by tak­ing advant­age of coach­ing clin­ics and licens­ing pro­grams offered by the Club.
• Every play­er on the team is a con­trib­ut­ing play­er and should be giv­en an equal amount of play­ing time except in instances where roster size does not make it pos­sible or if a play­er shows up late/leaves early.
• Soc­cer is a team sport and without each play­er, there is no team.
• Find ways to lim­it the num­ber of goals scored in “run­away” games. This should include encour­aging play­ers to pass a cer­tain num­ber of times before shoot­ing and oth­er “games” to keep the play­ers engaged.
• Work to under­stand the rules of the game and pass this inform­a­tion on to the play­ers.
• Main­tain con­trol of emo­tions and avoid actions, lan­guage and/or ges­tures that may be inter­preted as hos­tile or humi­li­at­ing towards our play­ers, oppos­ing players/coaches/parents or ref­er­ees.
• Treat par­ents, play­ers, fans, oth­er coaches, and offi­cials with respect regard­less of race, sex, reli­gion, or abil­ity and I will expect to be treated accord­ingly.
• Ensure that the fans of my team exhib­it sports­man­ship and matur­ity at all times and assist league and game offi­cials in main­tain­ing con­trol of the spec­tat­or side lines.
• Do not pub­licly ques­tion the referee’s judg­ment, and nev­er his or her hon­esty. The ref­er­ee is a sym­bol of fair play, integ­rity, and sports­man­ship. Please remem­ber, many of these ref­er­ees are young adults learn­ing how to ref­er­ee the game, so please treat them with respect. They are there to do an hon­est job which few oth­ers are will­ing to under­take.
• Will have read the SCFC Ref­er­ee Engage­ment Policy and agree to adhere by it.
• Coaches and/or bench per­son­nel may NOT address any mem­ber of the ref­er­ee crew dur­ing play except for:
  • Respond­ing to a referee-initiated com­mu­nic­a­tion.
  • Mak­ing a request for sub­sti­tu­tions.
  • Point­ing out emer­gen­cies or safety issues, such as an injured play­er on the field.
  • To request cla­ri­fic­a­tion of any call provided the request is cour­teous and non-argumentative.
• Drink­ing, smoking, foul lan­guage, and fire­arms are not allowed around the fields dur­ing games or prac­tices. If you need to smoke, please find an area a sig­ni­fic­ant dis­tance away from all oth­er par­ents, play­ers, and coaches.
• Respons­ib­il­it­ies of Coaches: Coaches are required to noti­fy the divi­sion head whenev­er a card is issued to a play­er or them­selves as well as any oth­er incid­ents which may com­prom­ise the integ­rity of the Team or Club. This must be done with­in 24 hours of the occur­rence. The Divi­sion head will con­vene a meet­ing of the Dis­cip­lin­ary Com­mit­tee to con­sider any addi­tion­al sanc­tions. This shall take place with­in one week. All such decisions by the Com­mit­tee are final.
• Clean­ing up the field or bench area (both home and away) after prac­tices or games, and for return­ing all equip­ment to its prop­er place.
• All coaches are asked to help in mon­it­or­ing the activ­it­ies that take place at the prac­tice fields, and to assist in keep­ing fields clean, safe and secure.

CODE OF CONDUCT FOR SPECTATORS AND PARENTS

• Will treat ref­er­ees with respect, regard­less of their age and decisions.
• Will NOT make neg­at­ive remarks about nor har­ass play­ers, ref­er­ees, coaches or oth­er spec­tat­ors.
• Will stay safe dis­tance away from the touch­line on their side of the field.
• Will NOT enter the field of play without the per­mis­sion of the ref­er­ee – even for an injury.
• Will encour­age good sport­ing con­duct.
• Will NOT coach or instruct play­ers from the side line.
• Will NOT use nor be under the influ­ence of alco­hol or illeg­al drugs at prac­tices or games.
• Will NOT threaten, har­ass or intim­id­ate soc­cer offi­cials in any way before, dur­ing and after any games.
• Will NOT use offens­ive, pro­fane, vul­gar lan­guage at prac­tices or games.
• Will have read the SCFC Ref­er­ee Engage­ment Policy and agree to adhere by it.
• Games may be sus­pen­ded due to poor spec­tat­or beha­viour until the spec­tat­or leaves the area.

CODE OF CONDUCT FOR PLAYERS

• I will play soc­cer because I want to, not because oth­ers want me to.
• I will play by the rules of soc­cer, and in the spir­it of the game.
• I will show respect at all times for all coaches, all ref­er­ees, all play­ers, all spec­tat­ors, and all club offi­cials.
• I will con­trol my tem­per. I will not fight or use foul or abus­ive lan­guage or inap­pro­pri­ate ges­tures.
• I will be a team play­er.
• I know that win­ning isn’t everything — hav­ing fun, play­ing fair, improv­ing my skills, mak­ing friends and doing my best are all import­ant.
• I will acknow­ledge all good play — that of my team-mates and of my oppon­ents.
• I under­stand that Coaches are there to coach and not to improve my beha­viour. If I am found to be behav­ing badly, my coach is per­mit­ted to remove me from the event. Fur­ther­more, the respons­ib­il­ity of my beha­viour out­side of team-sanctioned events is not that of team staff but is the respons­ib­il­ity myself, and of my fam­ily or guard­i­an.
• I will nev­er take part in a prac­tice, game or team event while under the influ­ence of drugs and/or alco­hol.
• I will not take part in any form of bul­ly­ing, either to an oppos­ing play­er or to a play­er on my team. Bul­ly­ing in any form, wheth­er in per­son, elec­tron­ic­ally (any form of social media) will not be tol­er­ated.

GAMES AND PRACTICES

• I recog­nize that prac­tices are more import­ant than games and games are equally import­ant.
• I will arrive at the field before prac­tices and games accord­ing to the stand­ards set by my team Coach.
• If I can­not make a game or prac­tice, I will noti­fy the team Coach at least 48 hours in advance so that arrange­ments for sub­sti­tutes can be made.
• I real­ize that play­ers who attend prac­tices may get pri­or­ity in the game start­ing line-up. Start­ing line-ups are based on sev­er­al factors includ­ing attend­ance at prac­tices, play­er­’s pos­i­tion, effort, atti­tude, etc.
• I will turn off all elec­tron­ic devices (cell phones, video games, etc.) before arrival at my prac­tice, game or team event and leave them off until I am fin­ished.
• I real­ize that play­ing time is not always going to be equal des­pite my coaches attempt to equal­ize. In fact some teams (high­er level Com­pet­it­ive teams) are per­mit­ted to use an “earned play­ing time” sys­tem. At the devel­op­ment and recre­ation levels, play­ing time shall be equit­able.
• I real­ize play­ing time is not always going to be equal. High­er level Com­pet­it­ive teams will use an “earned play­ing time” sys­tem. House League and Devel­op­ment ages will be closer to equal but not exactly equal.
• I will leave all ven­ues as neat and tidy as I found them and will remove all refuse from my area.

MY UNIFORM

• I will take good care of my uni­form and wear it only on game days.
• I will ensure my jer­sey is tucked in at all times as required by the laws of the game.
• I will wear shin guards, socks, appro­pri­ate foot­wear, and bring my own water bottle to all games and prac­tices.
• At prac­tices I will wear approved attire, such as ath­let­ic shirt and shorts as determ­ined by my coach and club.
• I under­stand that; rolling up my shorts to reduce their size, wear­ing short tops to expose my mid­riff, or expos­ing my bare shoulders is inap­pro­pri­ate soc­cer attire.
• I will abide by the SAFA rules and remove all jew­ellery for prac­tices and games (except for med­ic­ally approved brace­lets and eye wear).

DISCIPLINE

• I recog­nize that the team coach will handle infrac­tions that occur at times oth­er than dur­ing a game.
• I recog­nize that infrac­tions that occur dur­ing the game are gov­erned by the Laws of the Game and will be decided by the Ref­er­ee. The res­ult may be a Cau­tion (yel­low card) or Dis­missal (red card), in which case there may also be fur­ther action, includ­ing sus­pen­sions or fines, by the league dis­cip­line com­mit­tee or club dis­cip­line com­mit­tee.
• I recog­nize that cer­tain ser­i­ous infrac­tions will res­ult in a dis­cip­line hear­ing con­vened by the CTTFA or their del­eg­ate, and could lead to sus­pen­sion from soc­cer, and a fine being levied by the CTTFA. Pay­ment of the fine is my respons­ib­il­ity.
• I am respons­ible for reim­burs­ing the Club for any and all fines pay­able by the Club due to my actions or inac­tions.
• Fail­ure to pay any fines will res­ult in my sus­pen­sion from the Club for an indef­in­ite peri­od of time.

CONSEQUENCES

If for any reas­on the Code of Con­duct is not fol­lowed by the play­er, any [one or more] of the fol­low­ing steps may be taken by the coach or the Club:

• Reduce the play­ing time of the play­er; and/or
• Sus­pend the play­er for sanc­tioned peri­od of time.
• Remove the child from the team.

Play­ers are expec­ted to con­duct them­selves in a man­ner that is con­sist­ent with the spir­it of SCFC soc­cer regard­less of the actions of the coach.

CODE OF CONDUCT FOR REFEREES

SCFC ref­er­ees will ensure fair­ness, safety, fun, and main­tain con­trol of the game by enfor­cing the SAFA Laws of the Game. It is a priv­ilege to be a SCFC Ref­er­ee and ref­er­ees should always main­tain a pro­fes­sion­al and respect­ful man­ner.

• Will always main­tain the utmost respect for the game of soc­cer.
• Will con­duct them­selves in a pro­fes­sion­al man­ner at all times and main­tain the dig­nity of their pos­i­tion and trust on the field.
• Will hon­our their assigned game oblig­a­tions.
• Will be on time for the game to allow enough time to per­form all pre-game duties prop­erly.
• Will be equipped appro­pri­ately with a whistle, watch, red and yel­low cards, coin, rule book and writ­ing utensil.
• Will LOOK and ACT like a ref­er­ee, wear­ing the appro­pri­ate uni­form pre­scribed by SCFC.
• Will have a good under­stand­ing of the laws of the game.
• Will always strive to achieve max­im­um team­work with all fel­low ref­er­ees.
• Will behave pro­fes­sion­ally to all fel­low ref­er­ees, and nev­er inten­tion­ally cri­ti­cize or pro­mote cri­ti­cism of them with coaches or oth­ers.
• Will dir­ect con­struct­ive cri­ti­cism of all fel­low ref­er­ees in private.
• Will be pre­pared to be phys­ic­ally in the game and men­tally alert.
• Will stay on top of the play, but out of the way.
• Will respect the coaches and play­ers and inform them you expect the same in return.
• Will always be cour­teous and con­sid­er­ate but will not sac­ri­fice firm­ness.
• Will not hes­it­ate to explain rules and calls, but only at appro­pri­ate times.
• Will NOT use nor be under the influ­ence of alco­hol or illeg­al drugs at games.
• Will NOT us pro­fane or vul­gar lan­guage at games.
• Will always deal firmly with actions that could res­ult in injury to a play­er.
• Will main­tain their com­pos­ure when deal­ing with an irate coach or play­er.

SCFC REFEREE ENGAGEMENT POLICY

• No coach or spec­tat­or is to speak to the ref­er­ees dur­ing or after the game regard­ing any dis­agree­ment about a call or no call decision made by any ref­er­ee. Excep­tions: Coaches may ask ques­tions before the game, call for sub­sti­tu­tions and point out emer­gen­cies dur­ing the game, or respond to the ref­er­ees if addressed.
• Coaches and spec­tat­ors need to allow the ref­er­ees to offi­ci­ate games free of har­ass­ment.
• Viol­at­ors may be ejec­ted and are sub­ject to dis­cip­lin­ary action by SCFC.
• If coaches, play­ers or spec­tat­or have ques­tions regard­ing par­tic­u­lar calls, rules, or a ref­er­ee, or wish to give feed­back regard­ing a ref­er­ee, please con­tact the SCFC ref­er­ee coordin­at­or.

Yours in Foot­ball
SCFC Exco