![\"ThomasKolodziejPhotography_2011_08_30\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ThomasKolodziejPhotography_2011_08_30.jpg\")
<\/a>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 \u201cmonopoly\u201d has been thrown around a lot), but an overabundance of rules from what they claim is a top-down league management style.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the only real league around, the VISL has a monopoly on organized soccer,\u201d says 12-year VISL veteran Doug McDannold, a public servant by day. \u201cThis means that they have little motivation to try and do things to improve things for players and clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vince Greco, VISL president, isn\u2019t denying that the longtime league has been monopolizing Victoria\u2019s soccer scene for a long time, but he says it\u2019s 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\u2019s up to the league to enforce the rules, the management style is far from top-down.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, members come to the meetings and they say, \u2018We want all of the teams to wear uniforms,\u2019 so we say, \u2018Fine, that\u2019s cool, we\u2019ll make a rule about it,\u2019 but there has to be follow-up to it,\u201d says Greco. \u201cSo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very bureaucratic and the people in charge often make bewildering decisions, such as disproportionate fines for very minor rule violations,\u201d says McDannold. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tony Drolet, a VISL player who\u2019s 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\u2019s key that every league\u2019s administration is easy to get a hold of and communicate with.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to ensure the mediums of communication and administration are extremely user-friendly,\u201d says Drolet. \u201cCurrently, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201cfun first\u201d approach to get more people interested in the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d says Vince Cryne, Vicsoccer advisor. \u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019re competitive, but the disciplinary action is just based on peer pressure. Some of the games are even non-refereed.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would just hope that any new leagues would be looking to connect with the existing leagues to make sure that they\u2019re offering something that\u2019s new that\u2019s isn\u2019t already being offered,\u201d says Karen Hood-Deshon, executive director of the Lower Island Soccer Association, the body in charge of Victoria area youth soccer. \u201cIf you split teams then neither organization can operate, because half the people would be over here, and half the people would be over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Greco isn\u2019t sure exactly how a new league would impact the VISL, and poses unanswered questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you be robbing from Peter to pay Paul? Would there be that many more players coming in?\u201d asks Greco. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a tons more players; there\u2019s probably some room for growth. So if another league wanted to come, I don\u2019t think there would be a huge issue with getting fields, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for advice for any new soccer league starting up in Victoria, Greco has a warning about running a league with many different teams\u2019 interests in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really tough to please everybody, so try not to take it personally when you\u2019re getting pulled in several different directions by a bunch of different people,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause they are just looking out for their own best interests, where as a league we look out for the majority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longtime league player Drolet also has some advice for running a local league: \u201cKeep democracy to a minimum. The more decisions that are made by many, the harder it is to get anything accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-april-3-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6750"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6812,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6750\/revisions\/6812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}