Every body knows the saying that “rules are made to be broken.” Even the Dalai Lama is quoted as agreeing with this statement. It has been claimed that his advice is to “know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.”
So maybe that explains what is going on the second year of the FIH Pro League.
In the inaugural edition of the global hockey competition there were 60 matches played in the men’s competition and 76 in the womens during the first six months of 2019. So far in the second edition there have been four matches played, two by each sex. That makes a total of 140 games of hockey.
In the first season, although there were really no excuses, as the FIH published the rules of the competition and made them available to the media and all National Associations, there were clearly many who had failed to read and comprehend them.
One would have expected those who publicly showed that they had failed to understand the rules in season one to have been taken to one side, and had their errors pointed out to them. That did not appear to be the case as some continued to make the same mistake time and again.
With the finals at the end of Season one having taken place on the 29th of June 2019 and the first game of season two not being played until the 11th of January 2020, one would have expected that everyone would be across the rules this time around, but sadly that is not the case.
In Australia one could understand the confusion as their new “Hockey One” League opted to play under different rules to the FIH’s Blue riband event. However no games have been played in Australia yet. (Hockey, One Step in the Right Direction) So why are other nations still getting the rules wrong?
In 2019, we saw National association media Managers, reporters, sideline interviewers and in some cases commentators get the rules wrong, and now at the start of 2020 we are once again seeing all of these same people failing to comprehend the rules, as well as members of the coaching staff!
In the second match of the men’s Pro League India came back from 3-1 down against the Netherlands to draw the match 3-3. Before they drew level the commentator advised that the Pro League was known for its “lack of draws.” He then went on to advise us that in 2019 the Netherlands “won five matches outright, three after a shoot out following a draw in normal time, two shoot-out losses and four outright losses.” At the end of the shoot-out, after Akashdeep scored the deciding goal for India we were told that following their win the day before India “win in the shoot-out today.”
Social media claimed the same result, even some of the Indian media outlets claimed back to back victories for India. Yet unless the rules of the competition have been changed since week one of the FIH Pro League 2020, by winning the shoot-out India had in fact only picked up a bonus point. The match result was and will be recorded as a draw.
Rule 2b of the competition rules states quite clearly:
‘In the event of a Match being drawn, a shoot-out competition will be played in accordance with Appendix 2. The winner of the shoot-out competition will be awarded one bonus point.‘
If that was not clear enough for some, 2c goes on to state when explaining how points will be awarded per match:
‘ii. one (1) point to the winner of a shoot-out following a draw plus one (1) bonus point, making a total of two (2) points.
iii. one (1) point to the loser of the shootout, in the event of a draw;‘
So there you are the game is a draw and the winner of the shoot out earns one bonus point. There is no victor!
It is understandable that such an error may occur because as stated, rules are after all there to be broken.
One thing that is abundantly clear is very few people have actually read the rules for 2020 as reading to the end of Section 2 which covers ‘Competition Plan and Ranking in the League,’ sections L and M state:
l. During the Season, if teams are still equal after regulation 4.2 k, they will be displayed in al- phabetical order.
m. At the end of the Season, if teams are still equal after regulation 4.2k, they will be ranked equally.
If one then moves forward to section 4 to clarify regulation 4.2K, it is easy to become confused, as there is no section 4 let alone subsection 2!
In 2019 this section read as follows:
‘If there remains equality among two or more teams these teams will be ranked according to the lesser number of red cards, followed by lesser number of yellow cards followed by lesser number of green cards.‘
This regulation is in fact in section 2.K in 2020! Clearly the FIH set the test to see who reads their regulations!
The good news is that in 2020 there are no percentages to determine League positions,(Is The Pro League Heading in the Right Direction?) however a few teams will be hoping that they do not have any match cancelled. As section 3J explains how points will be awarded if that were to happen.
‘j. If one of the two Matches played between two teams is cancelled, the winner of the other Match will receive double points, ie 6 points. If the other Match is drawn, the winner of the shoot-out will receive 4 points and the loser of the shoot-out 2 points. If both matches are cancelled, both teams will receive 3 points.‘
This must have been accepted by all of the participating nations’ CEOs but one wonders how the coaches feel. If they have their team peaking towards the end of the League – which would make sense with the Olympics around the corner – and have a game washed out they could lose valuable points. Then again the Olympic medals are the focus in 2020, so maybe they will not get as hot under the collar as they might normally have. That is of course unless one of their Key Performance Indicators for their job, and/or funding is based on where they finish in the Pro League.
Of course this outcome also throws up another question in relation to the awarding of World Ranking points. If the cancelled game sees a team awarded points in a League competition, then surely that would imply that a result has been determined? So, as World Ranking points are now available in every match under the new system, does that mean that the team deemed to be the winner in the FIH Pro League would receive the appropriate World Ranking points? This again could be very important to teams in relation to not only their World Ranking, but also how they are seeded for major events.
When all is said and done maybe it is best to refer to former schoolteacher and headmaster JF Roxburgh who wrote, when prefacing the rules at the school he was headmaster with the following words, “they all deal with things which in themselves do not matter much, because things which matter cannot be dealt with by rules.”
