CLUB DISCIPLINE POLICY AND PROCEDURES
General Principles
The Club is committed to playing the game in the right spirit, promoting the game’s core values and providing players, officials and spectators with an enjoyable experience. The Club will deal promptly and firmly in a fair and consistent manner with any member who is found to be in breach of the Club’s Code of Conduct (see Appendix 1) or whose actions while representing the Club are reported to us by a match official, RFU, CB or a member of the public.
Discipline Committee
The Discipline Committee will comprise the Club Chairman together with 2 Officers or Committee Members. It is important that the Discipline Committee is seen to be independent and no-one in any way connected with the case, eg. as an accuser or a witness can be a member of it.
Basic Procedures
On receipt of a report that looks like it may be a potential disciplinary matter the Club Chairman will convene the Discipline Committee. If the Discipline Committee decides that there is a case to answer full details will be given to the member in writing. The member will be given the opportunity to appear in person before the Discipline Committee to state his/her case which may include presenting written evidence or calling witnesses. If the Discipline Committee decides that an offence has been committed it may award a penalty including:
- Reprimand
- Suspension
- Expulsion from the Club
This is not an exhaustive or an exclusive list. All cases must be dealt with strictly on their merits but the Discipline Committee can consider the members’ past conduct record. For relatively minor offences a past reprimand or a suspension may be disregarded if there has been at least one discipline-free complete playing season between the penalty and the current offence. Part seasons are not aggregated so for example a suspension given following a match in March of one season will stay current until the end of the following playing season.
The decision will be given to the member in writing and he/she will have the right of appeal. The appeal will be dealt with by the Club President and at least one other Officer or Committee Member who has not been involved in the original decision. The result of the appeal will be final but if the penalty is expulsion the member will be entitled to put his/her case to a properly convened Extraordinary General Meeting. If the vote at the meeting overturns the expulsion decision the matter will be referred back to the original Discipline Committee who may impose a lesser penalty.
Red Cards
The Club understands and accepts the need to uphold the authority of the referee.
The Discipline Committee will convene as soon as possible after receipt of the referee’s report and the member will normally be suspended by the Club until the result of the CB hearing. The Club will enforce and comply fully with any penalty imposed by the CB and may take further action against the member if the Discipline Committee decides that circumstances warrant it. Individual members are responsible for any admin charges imposed by the CB and these should be re-imbursed promptly if paid in the interim by the Club. The Discipline Committee will look into all the circumstances and may decide to support an appeal by the member where the decision was a matter of fact, eg a clear case of mistaken identity where there is overwhelming evidence in the member’s favour. In these clearly exceptional cases the Club may consider paying the admin charge.
