Hi all,

I was looking for some advice. Hopefully this is close to the right place!

On October 5th I signed myself up to be the captain of a six-a-side football team in a league ran by a company known as Soccersixes. We have played in such leagues before and although I was aware they use underhanded tactics and are all about the money, we have never had any major issues.

We played our first match on October 15th and at the time is seemed to go okay; however, I was then informed on October 17th by the league organiser that the referee had reported an incident that would result in one of our players being banned for one match. The issue with this is that the incident was not raised during or after the match at the venue, and as a result no one knew who the alleged culprit was. The referee did not know the name of who was involved, and everyone in the team denied that it was them (no one actually saw it happen and I have doubts that it happened the way the referee described).

In addition, we were unaware that the league dealt with discipline in this way. In every other league ran by Soccersixes that we have played in, a fine was always the result of an incident rather than a banning, unless it was reported to the County FA which in this case the organiser told me that it hadn't been. This is backed up by the terms and conditions on the website:

"Discipline: Any player receiving a red card will be fined £10 which is payable before playing again. Any serious discipline will be reported to the relevant County FA."

The problem we had is that we really only had a base of six people who could play, so if we showed up and someone couldn't play we would have been a man down, or if we showed up with seven and the referee couldn't point anyone out we would have had to play with a sub which no one wanted to do. I told the league organiser that we wouldn't be showing up as we did not sign up to a league that could ban players on a whim, but was told that if we didn't we would be fined our match fee and our opponent's match fee for every week until a replacement was found.

After this, I tried to pass the team onto somebody else who could get a team together, and was told by the league organiser that if they register their interest online, he will swap the details over. This was done, but the league organiser then said a match will have to be played before the new person can be held responsible, before details can be passed over and before the team will be put into the league online. This was weird, given that my team was put into the league online before we played a game and given that I was held responsible immediately upon signing up.

Fast forward to last night, October 22nd, and we took the decision out of principal not to go to the game. My thought process was that Soccersixes have broken their own terms and conditions by banning a player, so how could they find us in breach of the rules if it went any further?

The terms and conditions for not showing up to a fixture are as follows:

"You will pay us full match fee for cancelling a match. If a match is cancelled on less than 48 hours’ notice and we are unable to arrange your opponents another game you will also pay us the opponent’s match fee."

And:

"If a team cancels then the opposing team must still turn up for a friendly if the game is provided by S6. The team will win 5-0 and pay for the match as normal."

Knowing this, I thought I best go to the venue when our match was being played to see whether or not our opposition team were playing a friendly; from past experience, when a team does not show up, the referee just asks one of the teams from the match before to stay and play again. The team was playing, so I recorded this for evidence, and I also asked one of the guys who I kind of know if they had paid and he said yes.

Today, I received a text from the league organiser asking for £68 within 48 hours, or the situation would be passed on to debt collectors. Knowing that £68 equalled two match fees, I asked him how he arrived at this figure, to which he replied that our opposition "did not play a match". When I told him that I know this to be a lie, he changed it to say that our opposition "did not play a satisfactory match".

When I asked him why he charged our opposition their match fee and is also asking for the same match fee from us, he initially refused to respond, reiterating that we owe the amount stated. Hours later, he then said that they would be receiving credit back due to it being unsatisfactory.

Obviously he is still requesting the £68 from me, but given that they seem to be breaking their own terms and conditions left, right and centre, I really do not think that I should be accountable for anything.

Thoughts?

https://cse.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-pub-8889411648654839:6449422593&ie=UTF-8&q=Soccersixes+&sa=Search+CAG

well know here

I wouldn't be too bothered about them now

they don't do court and any DCA are powerless and are not bailiffs.

I have moved your thread to the correct forum.

gyms and clubs

dx

Hi Stel and welcome to CAG

As DX says, you could largely ignore demands from S6 as they won't usually take cases beyond Collection attempts.

However, you could protect your position better by writing a brief complaint to S6 setting out your complaint in writing rather than using the phone (which leaves you with no evidence unless you record the call).

A very short letter saying something like :-

Dear Soccersixes,

I refer to the dispute that we've already spoken about concerning the team (name) that I signed up.

You say a discipline incident occured on xxdate but the referee failed to identify the alleged offender, who was then banned for a match.

This left us unable to play on xxdate and you applied fines as a result, despite me seeing the other team play on that date.

Due to your unfair and arbitrary use of your T&C's and fines, I consider our agreement terminated immediately and will not communicate further with you.

Yours sincerely, Stelex15

Add further brief detail if necessary but that's about all I'd say for now.

If they call you to discuss, tell them IN WRITING ONLY and hang up.

Keep us posted ........

Any update on this

Also experiencing similar issues with this company

its best you start a new thread

of your own please

Any update on this

Also experiencing similar issues with this company

I asked for their complaints procedure and was given an email for the CEO of the company. I emailed him explaining the situation and the issues I had. He just replied with some corporate stuff that made no sense and was in complete support with the actions that the league organiser had taken.

This was all yesterday. In the meantime, the league organiser had text me and told me that due to non-payment, my debt had been passed on to a debt recovery agency. This was despite the fact that it was only about 43 hours after the match was due to be played and their terms state that I have 48 hours to pay.

I replied to both bits of correspondence with text similar to what was posted above (so thank you!) and will now be ignoring any other messages.

good on you!!

good on you!!

The message I got back was,

"Hello xxxx, we are going to continue to do what we know is right. We expect you to show up this Monday to fulfil your fixture and to have cleared your debt".

oh well if they want to live in a dreamworld...

oh well if they want to live in a dreamworld...

Their terms and conditions state that they will only charge a team their opponent's match fee if they cancel within 48 hours of the kick-off time and no friendly is arranged. I have given them four days notice, but I bet they still try and charge me for both my team's match fee and our opponent's.