TO:SRI Members

FROM:Larry Fish

President

DATE:January 20, 2003

RE:Insurance Coverage & Insurance Coverage during Tournaments

I thought it wise to put together a document that further describes in laymen’s terms the SRI insurance policy.

  1. Soccer Rhode Island has Officers and Directors insurance for its board members only. This policy DOES NOT cover our member association boards. Soccer Rhode Island did look into making our coverage available to all associations’ boards, but because we could all be on opposite sides of the legal table; it is not possible. However, we do encourage each member association to purchase this type of insurance on its own. Many member associations already have done so.
  2. Our General Liability insurance covers all players, coaches, administrators and volunteers for $1,000,000.00/incident and additional catastrophic liability protection of $4,000,000.00 in the aggregate: Coverage starts on your way to and from a sanctioned event (practice, game, meeting, etc.) The key word is sanctioned. Our policy does not cover us if we compete against another team which does not have liability coverage as well. Even if the other team (which does not have coverage) is competing at a sanctioned event, our coverage would be null and void. This is why it is very important that Soccer Rhode Island and the other state offices across the country make sure that practices, games, tournaments, etc. all have the proper paperwork. (i.e. player passes, signed and stamped state rosters, permission to travel forms, etc.) The state office is doing its best to make sure all players are registered and rostered properly so that everyone is covered by insurance.

EXAMPLES:

  1. Team A plays in a sanction tournament against Team B. A player from Team A breaks a player’s jaw from Team B. All the proper paperwork in – everyone is covered.
  2. Same scenarios as above, but Team B has a player that is not registered. For example, both teams arrive at the field and one of the player’s from Team B brings along a friend. He is not on the roster, is not registered to the team and is not insured, he is just there for the day. He gets hurt and files a suit against the player from Team A and the coach from Team A. Even though Team A did everything right, they are not covered because Team B is not covered. To reverse the situation, the player from Team A gets hurts and files against a player or coach from Team B. They are not covered either.

Every player and coach must be properly registered and insurance from both teams.

  1. Team A is an SRI member and is playing in a tournament against Team B, a college team. As long as Team A has their proper paperwork to go to the tournament from SRI’s state office; that sanctions Team A and permits our insurance coverage. However, if College Team B y against does not have liability insurance, Team A would have no liability coverage from a player claim generated by Team B due to the fact that Team B player has no coverage. If Team A player gets hurt and files a “liability” claim against Team B, there would be no benefits available as Team B has no insurance.
  2. Team A, an SRI member, is playing in a sanctioned USYS Tournament that allows other US Soccer affiliates to play. Team A plays Team B, a US Club Team. As long as Team B has insurance, Team A has insurance. If Team B does not (for any reason – improper paperwork, unregistered player, etc.) then Team A does not. This is just the same as Example C above. Again, even though Team A did everything right.

In all the instances above; if the player does not have insurance then the coach, volunteer, administrator, club, etc., does not have insurance.

  1. Our Medical Coverage is up to $1,000,000.00 per covered accident. It is secondary insurance. It does not start until after your primary insurance (Blue Cross, United Health, etc) ends. Then there is a $100 deductible which you are responsible for.

It is our recommendation that each of your coaches be fully informed with respect to the insurance coverage. It would be rather sad to have a serious incident occur and a coach find out that they were not covered for one reason or another.

Hopefully, this explanation further clarifies any questions you may have.