MFC Policy Documents

Introduction

MFC is a not for profit club with a mission to “Enhance the quality of life in Mosman by promoting the health, educational and cultural benefits of football”.

As an incorporated club, we operate for and on behalf of our members, who are players and parents of players, and are governed by the legislation for clubs in NSW, rules of the MWFA and FFA.  From time to time, we will also adopt policies to guide how the club operates, which are posted here for member review.  Please provide any feedback on these documents to the Secretary.

1.  Constitution

The current MFC Constitution (August 2009)  is here.

2.  MFC Overview

There is a brief overview of the club here.

3.  Code of Conduct

MFC has a code of conduct that covers behaviour of players, coaches, parents and match officials (referees).  A summary of the junior version is posted in the juniors section , and a document that can be printed out and signed can be downloaded here.  Please note that parents are responsible for their own conduct and that of their child up to the age of 18. The seniors version of the code is  here.

The code also applies to communications with club officials, as well behaviour at the matches and training.   Breaches of the code should be dealt with as follows:

• Report the breach to the Vice-President of the division
• The leadership team will consider the report and depending on the nature of the breach, will either just note it in its minutes or draft a formal warning letter
• A repeated breach after a warning letter has been issued will result in a formal meeting with MFC officials and possible suspension or expulsion from the club

In addition, racial vilification is unlawful and can have further consequences - see this circular from Football NSW

4.  Expense Policy

This document outlines the guidelines for reimbursement of MFC volunteer expenses and financial delegations

5.  Judiciary Procedure

The MWFA has revised its Judiciary Procedure, which can be downloaded in full here.  Some of the key points of this document are:

• A player who is sent off (red card) will automatically miss one game, with no right of appeal
• Serious sending-off offenses such as violent conduct, which can result in bans of up to 24 months, will be judged at a disciplinary committee hearing on the Thursday night following the game.  Players can opt to accept the sentence or attend the next disciplinary committee meeting.
• Cautions (yellow card) can not be appealed

The policy of MFC is to aim for a top quartile disciplinary record within the MWFA, so in general will not support appeals against findings of the disciplinary committee.  All disciplinary findings will be reported by the MWFA to the MFC judiciary officer. 

6.  Juniors Injury Policy

From time to time, junior players have illnesses or injuries that may interfere with their ability to train or play football, or place other players at risk.  MFC has the following policy to deal with these issues:

 

• Apply commonsense!  The first priority of parents, coaches and match officials is to ensure the safety of junior players.
• At all times, the parents or guardians of all U18 players have ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the player is able to train or play football safely.
• In addition, a coach may decide to stop a player training or playing if he or she believes this to be in the best interest of the player.  For example, if a player is injured during a  game the coach may substitute the player.
• Players may not train or play in arm casts as these may injure other players.
• Players should not train or play if they have injuries that are bleeding.  The coach should use the first aid kit provided by MFC to cover and stop bleeding.
• For  infectious diseases, do not allow players to play or train while the disease is transmissible, out of respect for others.  Seek medical advice if required.
• If in doubt, discuss the specifics of the situation with the coach and age coordinator.

7.  Email Policy

MFC acquires all member email addresses as part of the registration process, and may use these address to communicate on various matters, including commercial messages from our sponsors.  MFC members and volunteers will acquire email addresses for other members from time to time, and these addresses should not be used for non-MFC purposes without the prior approval of MFC or the MFC member.  MFC accepts no liability for misuse of emails acquired by members as a result of any volunteer roles.  Email addresses on published on the MFC website are not protected by this policy, but we would appreciate not receiving unsolicited commercial emails or spam!

8.  Photographic Consent

You or your child may be photographed playing sport in public places, and in general we have no control over the use of such photos.  From time to time, we or professional photograpers will take photos that are used to publicise or promote Mosman FC, MWFA or Football NSW and by joining MFC, you implicitly give your consent to this use.  Where MFC or any of its members have any concerns over the inappropriate use of photos, we will use reasonable endeavours to prevent this use but will accept no liability if we are unable to do so. 

9.  Working with Children

All team officials (ie managers and coaches) for junior teams are required by the NSW Government to complete a working with children form.  We have no flexibility in this matter, and if you have any concerns we suggest they be addressed to the NSW Government not Mosman FC.

10.  Junior Game Time

One of our club coaching principles is that “All players deserve equal time & attention from the coach”.  All junior players should therefore have roughly equal game time over the season, with substitutes playing at least half a game.  Depending on the squad size this can, at the coaches’ discretion,  be achieved by:

• Playing the whole squad each week, some as substitutes
• Rostering players off (particularly if  more than 16 players in the squad)
• Only borrowing players when required to field a full team with maybe 1-2 substitutes

Coaches should consider attendance, attitude and effort at training, as well as playing ability, and perhaps the opposition, in selecting the starting team.  For teams in finals, the policy is slightly different:

• Division 1 teams: The number of substitutes is at the coaches’ discretion.  All substitutes should play at least ¼ of the game
• Other teams:
  •  More than 16 players in the squad:  16 chosen at the coaches’ discretion.
  • 16 or fewer players in the squad:  Whole squad plays.
  • All substitutes should play at least ¼ of the game.

We recognise that (very rarely) this policy may make the difference between winning and losing, but believe this is a worthwhile trade-off for all junior players to develop  their skills and a healthy love of sport.

11.  Private Schools and Extended Absences

Many parents of junior players choose private schools for their children, with compulsory Saturday morning sport.  As a community club, Mosman FC aims to enhance the social fabric of Mosman by bringing together players from across the community.  We therefore encourage private school children to join Mosman FC, and have developed these guidelines to balance the interests of players and teams:

 

• Parents should inform the Junior VPs during the registration process if they will have private school commitments or extended absences so team squad size is big enough to cope
• Parents should advise the team manager of their time restrictions once the MWFA and School fixtures are known
• The team manager should canvas player availability for each game, and arrange to borrow players to ensure at least 11 players are available for each game.  It is disheartening to the rest of the team, and disrespectful to the opposition to turn up with too few players.
• If a player is available for:
  • More than half the game he/she should be selected for the game
  • Less than half the game he/she can be selected at the discretion of the coach / manager 
• Coaches should select the team from the players who are available, making substitutions based on game situation, player fitness and providing roughly equal game time over the season

 

Be applying this policy sensibly, we hope to ensure that:

• Players attending private schools can remain connected with the club from Juniors into Seniors
• We can maintain teams from U11 to U16, providing teams for children attending public schools

12.  Smoking 

There is no smoking allowed at any Mosman FC grounds or events.  This policy is required by the NSW Government and FNSW - see attached.

 

 

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