Sylvain Distin has revealed that Bournemouth are strengthening their team spirit with a series of punishments known as "the wheel".
Any player caught in breach of the club’s rules or behaving inappropriately has the choice of paying a fine or completing a sanction decided by a spin of the club-made wheel, with punishments ranging from performing dance routines or magic tricks in front of teammates.
Distin is expected to start when Bournemouth visit one of his former clubs, Manchester City, at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
He is likely to face players of the calibre of Raheem Sterling and Kevin de Bruyne but considers the wheel a more intimidating challenge.
The wheel, said Distin, “is tough”.
“It is fun but there are some challenges as a footballer you rarely face, like dancing in front of teammates and doing magic tricks. It’s good for team spirit.
“It is more scary than playing Manchester City. We have got one (soon) and I’m scared about it.
“You get fined for everything, things like if you kick the ball wrong at training or are late: all the basic stuff.
“I have had only one or two spins. One was to take five penalties and the other I had to find who was behind one of the tweets.
“There are plenty I don’t want.
“You don’t know until your name is called and you are told what you have done wrong, and you have to spin.”
Distin, who joined Bournemouth from Everton during the summer, eight years after leaving City for Portsmouth, also explained that players are taking responsibility for disciplining each other by providing evidence of their teammates’ misdemeanours and then staging a courtroom-like setting to allow the accused to defend themselves.
“We have a system: if you see something that should be reported you take a picture and that is it,” he said.
“It’s really harsh. We don’t know who took the pictures.
“You can either accept the punishment or speak in front of a jury and defend yourself.
“This is the first time I have experienced anything like this as most of the time it’s a fine system.
“Here you have a challenge to do: if you complete it the fine is reduced.”
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE