Following the Keynote Address from USWNT stars Kristine Lilly and Abby Wambach, Street Soccer USA’s founder Lawrence Cann was a featured speaker at the Urban Soccer Symposium in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, March 25th.
The presentation, titled, ‘What is a BLUE CARDtm – Design Innovations for Social Impact, A Practical Guide, Lawrence lead the group through the genesis of Street Soccer USA’s BLUE CARD and its various applications and impact. After a qualitative program review which sourced direct feedback on our programs from participants and other stakeholders, one theme stood out as typified by a quote from New York participants, Ulysses: “I come to street soccer for the positive energy. On the street positive feedback is a rare commodity.”
Indeed, the positive reinforcement and caring instruction was highlighted again and again in the evaluation as something meaningful that participants received at Street Soccer and nowhere else. As we looked to optimize our programs, we analyzed everything to make sure it was driving the impact we were setting out to achieve. Suddenly, our game rules which adopted typical red and yellow cards to punish bad behavior looked antithetical to our purpose. We are about positive reinforcement, so we needed to make sure that our games and programs were designed to drive that message. Thus, the BlueCard was introduced to reward positive play and sportsmanship, a counterbalance the punishments or red and yellow cards for bad behavior.
The Blue Card was an immediate hit. Players reported feeling extra motivated because they had more ways to win on the field. Since introducing the Blue Card we’ve seen a dramatic change. Not a single red card has been issued over the last four plus years in any of SSUSA’s competitions. One referee said, “I’m been refereeing for 20 year, but I feel like I’ve been doing it on one leg this whole time–withe blue card I feel like I have more twice the impact on the game and the players. I can’t thank you enough for opening this whole new world to me.”
SSUSA has seen other organizations including the Italian Series B professional league adopt the blue card as a standard practice. Going forward SSUSA is looking to promote it’s practice more widely in competitions across the entire soccer and general sports landscape. Blue Card have already become part of our regular program practices, where our coaches award them at the end of each practice to encourage players.
One day we look forward to a World Cup match where 80,000 fans cheer a referee for flashing a blue card to player, and giving proper emphasize to the positive power of sport to bring out the best in all of us.