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Womens Hockey World Cup!

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PinnerPaul

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Rather strange title for a thread I know but bear with me!

Went yesterday and, apart from the heat!, the thing that struck me most was how free flowing the game was. A number of rules/laws helped this. Wondered what you thought about these working in football - some would and some wouldn't so much I think, but interested to know what you all think

1) Ball out of play - sideline. Team of ball boys/girls have spare balls that they immediately place where original ball left fop. Player taking the restart can play the ball to herself. (No throw ins, so use stick)

2) Free kicks - Again very little delay as player can play restart to herself - defenders don't try and prevent quick restart

3) Penalty corners - time is stopped as soon as referee awards one and both teams have exactly 40 seconds to get ready for the corner. EVERY penalty corner at the 2 games was taken exactly 40 seconds later & the 'game' clock restarted

4) Goals - Again game clock stops and players have exactly 40 seconds to celebrate/blame a team mate before play starts again and ALWAYS exactly 40 seconds after a goal

5) Roll on roll off subs can be made as and when required without any stoppage in play or input from referees

6) 2 mins between 1st and 2nd Periods and 3rd and 4th, with 10 mins at half time. Clock starts as soon time is up and all periods started on time

7) Video referee - Crowd could hear conversation between match and video referee. Each team is allowed 1 UNsuccessful appeal per match. Referee refers TO the video referee if she wants a review, not the other way round.

Game was so much more free flowing than football despite there being more infringements - mainly because ANY contact with the ball apart from with the stick, is an offence - accidental or not.

Thoughts?

Thanks
 
The Referee Store
I've long wondered what football was like if handball no longer had to be "deliberate" and any arm contact was a foul - would be interesting as an experiment at least. Same for a (say) 60 minute game with an independent timekeeper stopping the clock every time it's out of play.
 
For me there is nothing wrong with general laws of football. Yes LOTG can be clearer but that's about it. The problem is with the culture created within players and administration of the game. Remove the 'cheating' culture, put respect for authority and your opponent back in it and its a beautiful free flawing game again.
 
Graeme - Interesting that apart from the penalty corners and goals, the clock was only stopped once in the two games I saw for a very brief injury - player got up without treatment.
 
And I bet nobody is talking about the referee either!
I personally believe the more objective nature of a lot of the decisions helps - when rules are strict and consistent, players know where they stand - and more decisions can actually make it less about the referee.
And sports like that don't tolerate dissent. And it isn't part of the culture.
Our sport prioritises fans, player salaries, and referee personality above the laws and their fair and consistent interpretation. Nothing will ever improve while that's the approach.
At least in hockey players actually stop the ball, and do so clearly. If players in football could play it to themselves, they'd barely ever actually stop the ball properly and the ref would get the blame for it (happens reasonably often for a quick free kick - or any futsal referee knows how much of an issue this is).
So players aren't appealing to the referee all the time.
The fact that a player falling over is usually a measure of a foul is a distinct complication in football that no other sport has.
Also, that implementation of video referee is how I've always maintained it should be. The current system is re-refereeing the game, and it's a mess.
 
one said:
For me there is nothing wrong with general laws of football. Yes LOTG can be clearer but that's about it. The problem is with the culture created within players and administration of the game. Remove the 'cheating' culture, put respect for authority and your opponent back in it and its a beautiful free flawing game again.
Click to expand...

Ding ding ding.

The culture of football accepts (or even promotes) cheating, wasting time, and surrounding the referee. The LOTG clearly give the refs tools to deal with these problems already. Those tools are just not used.
 
cwyeary said:
Ding ding ding.

The culture of football accepts (or even promotes) cheating, wasting time, and surrounding the referee. The LOTG clearly give the refs tools to deal with these problems already. Those tools are just not used.
Click to expand...
And that is why I said there is also a problem with the administration of football. E.g in the world cup referees were pressured not to use cards by FIFA. Even within the refereeing circles a referee who has a high number of yellow cards is judged as a referee who can't manage games and is card happy.
 
Beyond VAR, use of cards, subjective interpretation of contact, the handball disaster... beyond these, time management is an elephant in the football room.

My prediction: when Fifa and the top clubs need a strong negotiating tactic with the TV companies then they will introduce e.g. The Mandatory Minute at every corner, ceremonial DFK and kick off. Just imagine the $$$ from two ads at every corner!

Right now the cash is rolling in, and with the megabucks from Amazon and Apple yet to hit the negotiating table there’s more to come.

The hockey rules are so much closer to the way futsal is officiated. I love futsal but it is a different sport. The flow and marvelous muddiness of big football is something magical that other sports can only dream of. I don’t really see a half way house.

An obvious one would be an accurate game clock but the TV wouldn’t stand for that as it would just increase the time of matches (no ads) without other concessions. Of course the rise of new PPV streaming services could move the goalposts..,
 
Partly agree, but there is no set time for a goal celebration, or prescribed time for a penalty to be taken after decision made in football.

Likewise allowing throw ins and free kicks to be played to the taker would speed up the game without resorting to the referee.

Subs - again football has made a rod for its own back by introducing a complicated process with a procedure to be followed.

I didn't even notice subs being made. In the last match which Ireland had to win to qualify for Q/Fs, they were 1-0 up, but had no opportunity to waste time from subs, penalty corners or restarts because the laws simply didn't allow it - so much better than the referee having to police it and chivvy along the team wasting time.

The games I saw simply flowed so much better than football and as Capn said above, the referee's job was made so much easier by the laws that helped both the officials AND the quality of the sport.
 
I've also watched some of these matches and agree with the points above about how well the matches have flowed.
The funniest (best) example for me has been the player who gets 'sent off' for 2 minutes following a green card. No argument, no delay - she just sprints to the sideline and sits down. The 2 minutes only starts once she's sitting down, and I bet they would resume the game if she took too long to get off the pitch!
 
GraemeS said:
I've long wondered what football was like if handball no longer had to be "deliberate" and any arm contact was a foul - would be interesting as an experiment at least. Same for a (say) 60 minute game with an independent timekeeper stopping the clock every time it's out of play.
Click to expand...
Playing with a stop clock can only happen at the semi professional levels or higher where a timekeeper can be consistently appointed for all games in a league. This already happens in Futsal. Laws of Futsal are written for a stop clock game. Here in Australia only the highest level league plays with a stop clock. Anything below is on a running clock with no added time. It has all the issues that football has as far as time wasting and gamesmanship goes. So even if football introduces stop clock, I am pretty sure nothing changes for any league below semi professional level, certainly not for grassroots.
 
one said:
Playing with a stop clock can only happen at the semi professional levels or higher where a timekeeper can be consistently appointed for all games in a league. This already happens in Futsal. Laws of Futsal are written for a stop clock game. Here in Australia only the highest level league plays with a stop clock. Anything below is on a running clock with no added time. It has all the issues that football has as far as time wasting and gamesmanship goes. So even if football introduces stop clock, I am pretty sure nothing changes for any league below semi professional level, certainly not for grassroots.
Click to expand...
Our top 5 futsal levels have a timekeeper... but only the top 2 (or 3) have a qualifief ref. Lower we trust the timekeeper/scorer to a home team designate. Very rarely have to fix a clock error.

Agreed though gamesmanship is the same if not worse in futsal. I think I get more exaggerated contact and definately more aggressive dissent in futsal.
 
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