12-22-2022, 04:50 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-23-2022, 12:20 AM by .Laser. Edited 1 time in total.)
Hello Everyone,
It came to the attention of HO that during the behind the scene period of the S39 ISFL draft, specifically on the 5th of December, Honolulu GM @IceBear32 posted a contract for a S39 player. The user was not in the ongoing draft as they were both inactive and not above 57 TPE, per draft eligibility rules VI.B.9: "Inactive players with 57 TPE or less are not eligible for the ISFL draft.".
The same rule goes on to state "Players fitting this criteria will instead enter free agency upon the conclusion of the ISFL draft stream for their regression class. Teams may not contact these FAs until after the draft has aired." Since the player was supposed to be a free agent, they could not sign a contract. This action showed clear signs that talks with the user had taken place due to it being an active contract, which is forbidden under the aforementioned rule. Upon asking, IceBear was forthcoming that he did talk to the user in question, stating he was only thinking about signing a user for the roster and that since he wasn't in the draft, would be no rules around contacting him.
HO has no precedent to look to in this instance, and as a result have ruled with our best judgement. For breaking rule VI.B.9, HO has decided to levy a personal fine to IceBear32 of $6,000,000 (half his GM pay for the season), with no action against Honolulu taking place.
For full transparency, HO spent a long time deciding what to do in this punishment as there is no precedence for it. On surface level, the actions that took place are eerily similar to tampering, defined as "approaching a player under contract with another team or whose rights are owned by another team, with the purpose of persuading them to join your team, request a trade, hold out on contract negotiations, or retire." Clearly, IceBear was trying to get the user to join Honolulu, however tampering rules and subsequent punishment was not levied. This is due to the fact that the tampering definition states "player under contract with another team or whose rights are owned by another team" of which the user was neither. Upon reflection of this matter, we will be looking into adjusting the tampering rule to potentially include situations matching this to be considered tampering, as we feel it is a tampering action in all but definition, even if unintentional.
Secondly, whilst the user was a recruit by IceBear and therefore potential for a larger scheme, we do not feel that there was any kind of nefarious intent behind this action. HO felt that it was only an attempt to fill their roster and bring back an inactive player to the league, which dissuaded us further from choosing to also punish the team in this situation.
It came to the attention of HO that during the behind the scene period of the S39 ISFL draft, specifically on the 5th of December, Honolulu GM @IceBear32 posted a contract for a S39 player. The user was not in the ongoing draft as they were both inactive and not above 57 TPE, per draft eligibility rules VI.B.9: "Inactive players with 57 TPE or less are not eligible for the ISFL draft.".
The same rule goes on to state "Players fitting this criteria will instead enter free agency upon the conclusion of the ISFL draft stream for their regression class. Teams may not contact these FAs until after the draft has aired." Since the player was supposed to be a free agent, they could not sign a contract. This action showed clear signs that talks with the user had taken place due to it being an active contract, which is forbidden under the aforementioned rule. Upon asking, IceBear was forthcoming that he did talk to the user in question, stating he was only thinking about signing a user for the roster and that since he wasn't in the draft, would be no rules around contacting him.
HO has no precedent to look to in this instance, and as a result have ruled with our best judgement. For breaking rule VI.B.9, HO has decided to levy a personal fine to IceBear32 of $6,000,000 (half his GM pay for the season), with no action against Honolulu taking place.
For full transparency, HO spent a long time deciding what to do in this punishment as there is no precedence for it. On surface level, the actions that took place are eerily similar to tampering, defined as "approaching a player under contract with another team or whose rights are owned by another team, with the purpose of persuading them to join your team, request a trade, hold out on contract negotiations, or retire." Clearly, IceBear was trying to get the user to join Honolulu, however tampering rules and subsequent punishment was not levied. This is due to the fact that the tampering definition states "player under contract with another team or whose rights are owned by another team" of which the user was neither. Upon reflection of this matter, we will be looking into adjusting the tampering rule to potentially include situations matching this to be considered tampering, as we feel it is a tampering action in all but definition, even if unintentional.
Secondly, whilst the user was a recruit by IceBear and therefore potential for a larger scheme, we do not feel that there was any kind of nefarious intent behind this action. HO felt that it was only an attempt to fill their roster and bring back an inactive player to the league, which dissuaded us further from choosing to also punish the team in this situation.