Junior rugby league clubs are being forced to fork out money for players who are out of uniform.
The ludicrous policy sees fines for kids as young as five wearing the wrong socks, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Local clubs of the Canterbury-Bankstown district in Sydney were notified on Tuesday – via email – of price double from $50 to $100.
Junior rugby league clubs from the Canterbury-Bankstown area are being forced to pay $100 in fines for each player that is out of uniform
Kylie Anne, the secretary of Berala Bears, said that the $100 fine was excessive as many of the club’s players are from low socio-economic status.
‘I have refugees playing, and we have kids with single or absent parents,’ Anne said.
‘If you are a parent who has eight kids and you can’t find a sock for your kid, it’s not at the top of your priorities.’
The uniform policy was implemented in 2016 when clubs were only expected to pay a penalty of $20 for each player out of uniform.
Anne said that her club only receives $7000 from a local pub, while other clubs in the league receive funding from major leagues.
The club, according to Anne, relies on sales from the canteen which has taken a hit over the past few weeks.
‘And let’s not forget we are in the Canterbury district and we’ve just gone through four weeks of Ramadan … so we’ve had next to no canteen sales because many people are not eating,’ she said.
Anne claims that other clubs, including Chester Hill Hornets and Bankstown Sports Rugby League, are also frustrated by the policy price jump.
Clubs will be forced to pay if a child, as young as five, is caught wearing the wrong socks
This new price jump would have totalled to $4300 in fines following approximately 43 uniform offences, last weekend.
Anne called the system ‘Robin Hood in reverse,’ as it’s understood that the collected fine money will pay a dividend to teams who followed uniform standards.
The freshly appointed Canterbury Junior Rugby League competition manager, Nathan Mairleitner, said that they are raising standards in the hope that playing numbers increase.
‘We are not here to cause any further monetary concerns, it’s more a case of lifting standards by putting people on notice,’ he said.
Mr Mairleitner said that while he has come in at ‘halftime,’ he is open to review current processes and policies for the better of the league.
The fines had been labelled as ‘not negotiable’ in a previous email, something that Mr Mairleitner would alter in special circumstances.
The Berala Bears secretary, Kylie Anne, said that the price increase from $50 to $100 was execessive as many families from the area are from low socio-economic status