Quote:
|
Originally Posted by MikeDubreuil
Although judging by this thread I'm not sure if I should bet on what Dave's intentions were  |
Which is exactly why "intent" should not be a major factor in the referees decisions during the game. If you don't know the intent of the rule-writer, then all you have to go on is the words of the rule itself. If you don't know the intent of the teams, then all you have to go on is their set of observable actions.
Besides, how would you ever know what my "intent" was anyway, either in wording of the rules, or in this discussion (Warning: one of my favorite classes in high school was "Debating" - I used to love to take the side that was contrary to my personal beliefs, just to see if I could "put myself in the other person's shoes," understand their viewpoint, and argue it successfully)? For all you know, Jonathan Lall and I could be in complete agreement on every point, and just having fun in a good debate.
But there is one other note. Several folks have compared the jobs of the FIRST referees with other sports referees. But there is at least one major distinction that you have to keep in mind, which limits the applicability of this reasoning. Major sports referees receive considerable training and usually have years of experience with the game before they start calling high-level (particularly college- and professional-level) games. With that experience, they can make reasonable estimations of whether a team is acting within the spirit of the game or not.
But the vast majority of FIRST referees are somewhat similar to the amateur referee who gets pulled in once a season to call a little league baseball game. Except that during the off-season, all the rules for the game have been completely re-written, and the team is now playing soccer instead, and the referee has one day to learn all the new rules. In this situation, the referees have no extensive experience base with the game, and only a very quick familiarity with the rules. The nuances of the game play and subtleties of strategy are difficult to determine and differentiation between valid tactics and poor sportsmanship is not always obvious.
For that reason the once-a-year little league-turned-soccer referees and the FIRST referees must both rely on the only solid information they have - the rules. If FIRST ever gets to the point where they can have paid referees who can devote three months learning all the intricacies of the game and observe thousands of matches to learn all the subtleties before calling their first match, then things will be different. But until then, as long as we are relying on (very good and enthusiastic) amateur referees, we have to be realistic about what we are asking them to do.
This is my position, and I am sticking to it. Or then again, I could just be enjoying a good debate!
-dave