Austin BD-Soccer Premier League (ABPL)
Everything you may want to know about ABPL
As the number of soccer players in Austin’s Bangladeshi community have increased in recent time, and as a lot of our youngsters have participated in recently held Austin-BD soccer tournament, we believe now it’s the time to transform our regular Sunday soccer into a competitive soccer league (from 2022). However, we understand that running a full-fledged soccer league through out the season (/part of the season) won’t be an easy task. Besides, all of us are recreational soccer players and have other commitments in personal/social life. But with proper logistical planning and well-organized committee, we can transform our Sunday soccer into a competitive soccer league. This league will have no impact on our annual soccer tournament. The League games will take place from May till July. Our annual soccer tournament will take place in September/October as usual. All players are required to sign ABPL Waiver Form by May 14th.
WHY ABPL?
- To make the regular Sunday soccer more exciting and competitive.
- To initiate some new rules and guidelines for participating in Sunday/weekend soccer (to avoid 25-35 players on the same field).
- To enforce some actual soccer game rules that are completely missing from Austin’s Sunday soccer (foul throws, limited offside rules, consequences for intentional handballs etc).
- To encourage our younger generation to participate more on Sunday soccer on a regular basis. Currently we only see them playing during the tournament.
League Format
- This league will start with Four Teams
- Each team will play against each other three times in the league
- There will be 3 Phases (each phase will last for a month) – 6 Games on each phase. Each team will play 3 games in each phase and a total of 9 games in the season. There will be a total of 18 games in the league.
- FIFA rules will be used for point distribution as used in International leagues (Win – 3, Draw -1 , Lose -0)
- Depending on circumstances, some games could be in a 7 vs 7 format or 9 vs 9 format. But the goal is to have all games in 11 vs 11 or maximum 12 vs 12 format
ABPL Teams
Four teams that will participate in the first season of ABPL are based on four different areas of Greater Austin. This is done to avoid draft (leave the fun of draft for the annual soccer tournament) and also to build fan base for the teams. The four teams that will participate in this season are:
- Austin Arsenal (from Central to North Austin & Cedar Park)
- United South Austin (South Austin, Buda, San Marcos)
- RRP FC (Round Rock, Pflugerville, Hutto)
- Leander Bandits SC (Leander, Liberty Hills & Georgetown)
Point Distribution Rule
- Each team will be playing 9 games (3 games in every phase). In each game, winning team will be awarded 3 points and losing team will get 0. If a match is drawn, both teams will be awarded 1 point each.
- Rainout games will be considered as 0-0 draw and teams will be awarded 1 point each. However, teams will be requested to play the rainout game on following weekdays if both teams agree to play in a shorter version if they manage enough player for the game (minimum 7 vs 7 in smaller post for 60-minute game).
- All goals (/number of goals) will be recorded and if at the end of the league two or more teams end with same number of points, then goal difference will be used to rank the teams.
Fixtures
All games will take place on Sunday between 6:00pm to 8:30pm from May 15 till July 24. However, there will be no game during Memorial Day weekend and 4th of July weekend. Click here to see the detail schedule.
PS: Team USA (South) will play 5 out of their 9 games in a field in South. This will require other teams to travel to South for at least one game. Currently 3 teams home-ground is considered as Wilco, but if it changes then the Venue will be updated).
Match Rules
- When players available, all games will be a “12 vs 12” and “80 minute” game (only 10 minutes break during halftime with no other breaks). If a player gets tired, that player should consider being substituted by another player.
- When a team does not have enough players then games will be “11 vs 11” or even “10 vs 10”. If a team don’t have at least 10 plyers, then they can loan players from any other team who have more players available on that day. But teams shouldn’t expect to get other teams’ best/better players as all 4 teams will be playing in the same day. So, other teams will very likely not give away their best/better players.
- When teams have less than 10 players (and can’t find players from other team), then games will have to be 9 vs 9 or lower (up till 7 vs 7). If a game becomes 8 vs 8 or 7 vs 7, then games will be held in smaller field and in smaller posts These games will be “60-minute” game.
- If one team can’t manage enough players to have a game but the other team have enough players, then the other team will be awarded a 1-0 win and will be awarded 3 points.
- Very Important: It is expected that not all players will be available on certain days and some teams will have to play without one or more of their star players on certain days. This can happen to any team, but teams cannot use this as an excuse not to play any game. This is a friendly league and we all have to cooperate.
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Soccer Rules and Cards
- Offside (currently under review): It will be extremely difficult to enforce actual offside rules in our soccer. But we want to start with the very basic ones, the one that everyone could easily consider as offside – when an oppositions’ player (/players) are standing alone near the goalkeeper and the last defender is at least 3-5 yards above that player. So, when that player receive that ball, that should be considered as offside.
- Handball: A player using his hand to deliberately hold the ball and stop the game will get a yellow card (for first offense) and red card (when he already has a yellow card and does it again).
- Stepping on Boot: This need to be carefully monitored. If a single player is found repeating it twice, then it will be yellow card offense. If he is doing it again after the first yellow, then that player will receive an automatic red.
- Slide Tackling: Slide tackling should not be confused with sliding. A player can slide to shot the ball away or get a grab of the ball. But if that sliding is made to stop opposition players’ move or grab the ball from him, then that will be considered as sliding tackle. This will not be permitted in any game and referees can show yellow card or direct red card to a player (depending on circumstances).
- Tackling from behind: Any kind of tackling from behind is prohibited. Players need to move to the front (of another player who has the ball) before they can attempt to tackle another player.
Referee
- It would have been great if we could use external referees like we did in the tournament. But due to certain circumstances, we must think about other options (finding a solution that doesn’t cost us anything). So, we should try to get at least 4/5 volunteers from each team. This should give us about 16-20 volunteers. Each of these volunteers will have to officiate at least 1 game. They will miss their game on that day, but it will be for a single game for all these volunteers.
- We should also look for few people from our community (former players) who would be interested to officiate games.
- For all the referees, we would make the whole process very simple as we will provide them certain guidelines.
Guidelines for Referees
- Referees will be maintaining time.
- Referees will be asked to call fairly visible handballs and fouls.
- Referees will call offside as per as the guideline provided in the rules section
- Referees will show yellow card and red card as per as the guidelines provided on Soccer Rules and Cards.