Victoria soccer players suggest league improvements

In the wake of a new soccer league starting up in Victoria, local players are chiming in with their own ideas on how to run a successful and player-friendly league in town.

As reported last issue, Vicsoccer is a new league beginning this spring that prides itself on more casual play. The upstart league enters the circuit with the long-running Vancouver Island Soccer League (VISL), a FIFA-associated soccer organization and division of BC Soccer, which has dominated local fields for decades.

But talk of a new league coming in has raised some issues about the VISL amongst players. Not only its dominance on the local soccer scene (the word “monopoly” has been thrown around a lot), but an overabundance of rules from what they claim is a top-down league management style.

“As the only real league around, the VISL has a monopoly on organized soccer,” says 12-year VISL veteran Doug McDannold, a public servant by day. “This means that they have little motivation to try and do things to improve things for players and clubs.”

Vince Greco, VISL president, isn’t denying that the longtime league has been monopolizing Victoria’s soccer scene for a long time, but he says it’s just fact: right now the VISL is the only game in town. He also explains that the league is run for the members, by the members, and although it’s up to the league to enforce the rules, the management style is far from top-down.

“For example, members come to the meetings and they say, ‘We want all of the teams to wear uniforms,’ so we say, ‘Fine, that’s cool, we’ll make a rule about it,’ but there has to be follow-up to it,” says Greco. “So if a bunch of guys show up in different coloured shorts the next game, they get fined $50. And as with any organization, the bigger you get, the more rules you have to follow.”

So many rules, in fact, that players like McDannold are starting to question the need for some of them. And while fines can work well for rule-breaking of the physical infraction kind, what about fines for things that are out of the control of some players?

“It’s very bureaucratic and the people in charge often make bewildering decisions, such as disproportionate fines for very minor rule violations,” says McDannold. “The scheduling is poor, with games constantly being changed in the days leading up to them and teams then being fined if they are unable to field enough players to play. There seems to be a belief that people should just clear their entire schedules for soccer since the games can be moved to any time or place.”

Tony Drolet, a VISL player who’s been in the league for 25 years, says the best way to improve local soccer leagues is open up competition among leagues, such as new leagues like Vicsoccer, in order to welcome players with open arms. He also says it’s key that every league’s administration is easy to get a hold of and communicate with.

“You have to ensure the mediums of communication and administration are extremely user-friendly,” says Drolet. “Currently, if you want to play organized soccer in this city you must ensure that you are associated with one of the teams that is already in existence, or risk being left out.”

Vicsoccer is coming into town with a different approach. While VISL prides itself on being an organized league with a set structure and a dependency on rules, the new league is looking at a “fun first” approach to get more people interested in the sport.

“We like to emphasize that this is a fun environment and a lot of times we see more smiles in this league than we do in a traditional league setting,” says Vince Cryne, Vicsoccer advisor. “It’s still competitive, but these guys have to get up and go to work the next morning. And the beauty of this is it attracts ages anywhere from 16 to 76. We’re competitive, but the disciplinary action is just based on peer pressure. Some of the games are even non-refereed.”

Everyone seems to agree that having more soccer leagues in Victoria is a good thing: the more people playing the game, the better. But existing soccer organizations are hesitant about any new league coming in without doing their homework first. A limited number of fields and a relatively small player base are just two of the challenges for a blossoming soccer scene in town.

“I would just hope that any new leagues would be looking to connect with the existing leagues to make sure that they’re offering something that’s new that’s isn’t already being offered,” says Karen Hood-Deshon, executive director of the Lower Island Soccer Association, the body in charge of Victoria area youth soccer. “If you split teams then neither organization can operate, because half the people would be over here, and half the people would be over there.”

Meanwhile, Greco isn’t sure exactly how a new league would impact the VISL, and poses unanswered questions.

“Would you be robbing from Peter to pay Paul? Would there be that many more players coming in?” asks Greco. “I don’t think there’s a tons more players; there’s probably some room for growth. So if another league wanted to come, I don’t think there would be a huge issue with getting fields, etc.”

As for advice for any new soccer league starting up in Victoria, Greco has a warning about running a league with many different teams’ interests in mind.

“It’s really tough to please everybody, so try not to take it personally when you’re getting pulled in several different directions by a bunch of different people,” he says, “because they are just looking out for their own best interests, where as a league we look out for the majority.”

Longtime league player Drolet also has some advice for running a local league: “Keep democracy to a minimum. The more decisions that are made by many, the harder it is to get anything accomplished.”