Yellow card / Red card usage at 2004 IRI

[Andy Baker]

As the head ref at the 2004 IRI, I initiated a yellow card / red card warning and penalty system. The idea was generated by some smart people in this thread.

Before I describe what all happened, I want to say why I am starting this thread. The point of this thread is to discuss and evaluate the yellow card / red card system, not debate the calls made by the refs. If you wish to do that, please PM or email me directly. What we were trying to do at IRI was test a new tool for the refs to use to make things clear to all competitors and fair for teams. Refs are still human, and their decisions are not perfect in everyone's eyes. This is just a possible tool for them to use.

Yellow Card

• each team can only get 1 yellow card for the entire competition
• a yellow card is a serious, public warning that this team ALMOST received a disqualification (DQ)
• yellow cards are given after the match is over, after the referee team discussed the situation
• teams are told what their yellow card is issued for
• spectators are also told what the yellow card is for and who it is given to (briefly)
• the head ref notes the team who received the yellow card

Red Card

• a red card is given to a team who has been DQ'ed for the previous match
• red cards are given after the match is over, after the referee crew discusses the situation
• teams are told what their red card is issued for
• spectators are told what the red card is issued for
• referees do not have to use a yellow card before using a red card

Usage at IRI:
1 yellow card was given team A for tipping
1 yellow card was given team B for grabbing another teams drive base and not letting go (they probably did not mean to do it, but it happened)
1 yellow card was given team C for running into another team with their grabber. The nature of the action, combined with their specific grabber design led to this yellow card.
1 red card was given to team team D for an entanglement of their hook into their opponent's drive base
1 red card was given to team team E for an entanglement of their hook into their opponent's robot structure (carabiner could not let go)
1 red card was given to team C for a similar move they did to get their previous yellow card.

Referees have a difficult time judging intent. Each of these cases could be un-intentional, but still needed to be warned or penalized. These teams were all competing hard and trying to play the game the best they could. I debated about listing their team numbers here, but saw no benefit in doing that. Further down in this thread, team numbers may come out, but I am going to error on the side of anonimity at this point. Besides these calls, there were other plays where some teams ALMOST got a yellow card, but did not. I can think of a few other instances where a yellow card may have been issued, but the referee crew were less sure of the situation.

In each case of the yellow card given, teams were told why they were warned. We gave team B a yellow card after they left the field, but they were told about it before their next match started.

I have already heard some positives and negatives about this system. FIRST will benefit if we discuss this fairly. Please post your opinions and thoughts on this.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker