Late withdrawals
Since last weekend, our competitions team has had 24 teams withdraw from competitions. As all administrators know, this impacts the fixture immediately and requires a significant amount of re-work. The team is currently working through league adjustments and will have leagues ‘re-balanced’ by round 4 (after our re-grading period). If we have any further team withdrawals over the weekend, this fixture will simply be cancelled rather than reallocated. Please ensure you direct all team managers to continue to check their fixtures online right up to Saturday evening.
Late Entries
We currently have 95 pending late team entries which will be considered during the re-grading period at the conclusion of Round 3 or otherwise determined by Football Victoria and must be submitted by 10:00AM Monday 29th April. Click here to submit a request
Fixture clashes
The Competitions Team have worked through all Round 2 fixtures. We remind Clubs to refer to the ‘Competitions’ and ‘Fixtures & Results’, page on the Football Victoria website, for the most up to date fixture, alternatively click here. Any further team withdrawals over the weekend will result in the cancellation of the fixture. We remind Clubs and Team Managers they can scan age appropriateleagues online to find other teams that have a bye and seek to arrange a friendly fixture, if they do not have an allocated fixture for this weekend. There are many Clubs that may have teams in the same situation and would welcome a game. Our aim is to have as many players involved in a game this weekend as possible.
Our Referee Schedule
All Clubs without an appointed referee will be notified via email by the FV Referees Department each Friday afternoon. Clubs can then arrange a club referee. The email notification will be sent to the Club nominated PlayFootball email address.
In the event of a referee withdrawing from a previously accepted appointment on matchday, an appointments officer will attempt to appoint another referee. Should a referee not be appointed, clubs will be sent a SMS advising them a referee will not be attending. Clubs should then arrange a ‘club referee’ to referee the match.
What should we do if a referee does not present on the day?
- The next most senior Match Official (e.g. Assistant Referee) will take charge of the fixture.
- If no registered Match Official is present to act as the ‘Replacement’ 10 minutes prior to the fixture, both clubs should agree on a ‘Replacement’ referee.
A ‘Replacement Referee’ can be a parent or club official that knows the relevant Rules and Laws of the Game. For further information go to page 16-17 for Club Referee Guide (Click here).
- If, by the scheduled kick off time, no agreement on a ‘Replacement’ referee can be reached, the Home Club must appoint a person to act as Match Official for the fixture.
- If any match does not kick off within 15 minutes of the scheduled kick off time due to the absence of a Match Official, the home team will forfeit the fixture.
- All Clubs must fulfil all fixtures, regardless of whether a Match Official is present to take charge. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action.
- Clubs are encouraged to report non-attendance of referees via the Club Feedback Match Officials form – Click here
Green Shirt Referees
Clubs are reminded that Green Shirt Referees are first year referees and as such new to the role. We ask the Football Family to support all referees in a positive way just like Coaches and Players. Referees will make mistakes from time to time and Clubs must remember that:
- The Players are Kids
- This is a game
- Our coaches are volunteers
- The referees are human
- This is not the EPL or A-League.
We have mainly appointed our Green Shirt Referees to our newly formatted Under 12 (9v9) Competition.
Player Registrations: Profile picture
All players who are participating in Junior Competitions (U12 – U20) are required to upload a photo on their Play Football Account in order to ensure that the ID cards are generated.
Some photos may be uploaded landscape as opposed to portrait. Where a player is having issues uploading a photo, the player or club can contact FFA support to upload the photo playfootball.support@ffa.com.au including the following details; Full Name, DOB, Name of club registering for in 2019 and attach the player ID photo.
Player Registration: Team manager team profile print out
All nominated club registrars must produce Player ID cards to be presented on match days for Junior Competitions (U12 – U20) as per the 2019 Rules of Competition – Click here.
A step by step manual on the process of how to generate Player ID Cards can be found using this link.
School holiday season start
In order to fit in an 18 round season with a break over the Easter holiday period and appropriate catch up rounds into the council allocated winter window for facilities, we have had to start this year’s season on the first 2 weeks of the April school holidays. We’re aware that player participation in school holidays can be a challenge for some clubs. We encourage clubs to work with all players of appropriate age, footballing ability and physical capability to ensure that your teams have enough numbers to field a team. We know this often means that the parents that are not on holiday are required to ‘ferry’ players between different fixtures on the day. Provided the players are capable and well prepared for the games then this as an opportunity for more football on these weekends. Of course, clubs and parents should always use their discretion when determining a player’s capability to play multiple games in one day and/or across a weekend. The current predicted weather conditions in Melbourne are for 19 degrees on Saturday and 22 degrees on Sunday and these conditions should also be factored into a player’s capacity to play multiple weekend games.
U12 9 v 9
For the 2019 season, the community clubs have had U12 competition move to a 9 v 9 format. Whilst the rules, field set up and other requirements have been previously sent to all clubs, please remind your coaches and Team Managers of the format change and where they can access all information in relation to this format of the game. All details on our community 9 v 9 format can be located at this link. As this is the first weekend of 9 v 9 for U12’s, we encourage clubs to work with each other to understand the rules and support the players to have an enjoyable football experience on the day.
2019 Easter Break & Catch Up Fixtures
As previously communicated to clubs via the season calendar release. Community Clubs are reminded that all competitions, excluding Men’s State League rescheduled fixtures, FFA Cup and Nike FC Cup will not be scheduled during the Easter Break.
Clubs are also reminded that Catch Up Rounds are reserved by FV for the purposes of scheduling fixtures which are either abandoned/postponed or need to be moved due venue closures during the regular season.