14B.2 Rider identification
Comments about this discussion:
Started
There are a few small things I don‘t like very much about this rule.
In my opinion, we should add that each player has to have a unique number (within his team). Only this allows to identify him during the game (by referees and eg also speaker). Interestingly, the rule is called ‚rider identification‘, but does not really require this. Maybe renaming the rule to something like ‚clothing‘ would be more suitable?
Then, the current rules state that each team should have two sets of shirts. I think this is a good idea, however its not in relation to the point above. And as its anyway only a suggestion, it does not really belong into the rules. I suggest removing this sentence and instead adding one that organizers should have at least two differently colored sets of shirts to put on top of the normal shirts. These shirts then also could be used to give to teams that don‘t fulfill the requirements above (which should not but could of course happen).
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I think this is a kind of rule where different levels of tournaments might have different regulations. For many games it'll be fine to just ensure it's clear which team players belong to which can be achieved with the overshirts even though they often end up super nasty. For high level games it would absolutely make sense to require teams to bring numbered shirts.
There's a question if the number on the shirt would be the only way to identify players and where we need players to be identified. We don't have a huge amount of players being sent off the court for 2 and 5 minute penalties and for other penalties you're already beyond what can be achieved with numbered shirts.
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I understand the desire to have unique numbers of each player for the referees but I think it is not worth changing because we also suggesting in the rulebook that the organisers keep a set of coloured bibs for teams to wear when they don't have alternate colours. If we have players wearing bibs provided by the organisers they wont have numbers which goes against this rule, or the organisers need to get coloured shirts with numbers on them.
I think moving the two coloured shirts to the organisers section is a good idea but I don't think we will get much out of requiring identifying numbers for each player. I think most teams who are purchasing specific jerseys for unicon alreayd have numbers on them and the other teams are wearing their normal unicon shirts.
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To add to what Steven says this would also make it harder to form pickup teams since they often just play in the unicon t-shirt or pick a color at random.
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I see the problems with pickup teams and it would be nice to still allow them.
Maybe the wording could be in such a way that each team has to play with numbered shirts (and not necessarily bring them to a tournament). These could also be provided by the organiser, where I would specify two sets of differently coloured numbered shirts.
(Adding to the other discussion, it would be very easy to allow any kind of shirt but much harder to make a rule before a tournament that requires numbered shirts.)
At the UNICON we have the challenge of having a convection but at the same time a world championship. Requiring numbered shirts does not only make it easier for the referees but also increases the seriousness of the hockey tournament (where every hockey player should profit from) not only within the UNICON but also for the more broader outreach of our sport.
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And to add a more general thing:
I have quite the strong opinion that the rules should work for every game and situation and not just "work fine for many games". Also for games in lower leagues situation can occur where a penalty box is appropriate and then it would be very beneficial to have numbered shirts.
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Numbered shirts could be provided to pickup teams but then there's could be a question if riders need the same number between games and you still end up with some t-shirts that are super nasty – at least if you just need to play with the same color it's easy enough to agree to play in red, white, black or whatever. I also don't think it makes a big difference to how serious the sport is if people play in loaner t-shirts or different t-shirts that are still the same color since in both cases it's clear the team hasn't coordinated outfits from home.
It's also where it ends up making a distinction can be made between the A- and the B-tournament, since it would be more needed in A than B and then there's a question about how this is communicated.
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Is it possible to consider jerseys as part of the equipment? Since the hockey director serves as the main organizer and is responsible for the equipment (14C.1), he could enforce a requirement for A-teams to have numbered jerseys while exempting B-teams from this requirement.
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Having numbered jerseys is the right way to go and teams regularly participating in tournaments mostly already have it. On the other hand, in local games and tournaments players know each other very well and actually don't need numbers to distinguish players. And, as already said before, pickup teams should still be possible.
I would not lay the burden of having numbered jerseys to the organisers, that is in the responsibility of each team. Organisers end up with two sets of numbered jerseys which no one wants to wear because every team normally brings their own jerseys. It's a nice to have if organisers have jerseys but not a mandatory thing.
Would starting numbers which would be pinned to a players shirt like in track races be an alternative?
Or would be starting number bibs like theses appropriate, which can be worn above a jersey? https://www.teamsports.com/football/training-bibs/starting-number-bibs-with-print/a-1221
Ciao Ole
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I would hesitate to use start numbers like in races since ends up being more contact in hockey and it seems like something that could rip a t-shirt apart or worse if players are unlucky. The bibs could work but then you'll end up with a problem if players need to have the same number for all games or can switch numbers between games.
FWIW this seems like a great candidate for differentiated rules between leagues as this will likely not be viable for the B-league at unicon even, especially if there's pickup teams joining. In the A-league it seems to already be the status quo so I'm not sure how much would change there. From a perspective of being able to play/ref a game all you need is really just for one team to have yellow vests on to see who's on which team.
There's also an issue that it can seem a bit wasteful to print custom t-shirts for a 3 day event (or a 1 day event) when it's not strictly needed for the game. I think the rules are fine as they are now.
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Ok so we have a few optons
Require teams to have numbered jerseys. no exceptions, Pickup teams taking part at large competitions would need to organise something or rely on tournament organisers being nice and providing numbered bibs.
OR
Require organisers to provide numbered bibs to cater to pickup teams at large competitions. If this is in the rulebook then organisers for large competitions like UNICON would be able to request coloured bibs from the UNICON budget to buy them.
OR
Do not specifically require numbered jerseys
Can we come to a consensus?
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Last Friday during our discussion, we came to a conclusion about this topic.
Numbered jerseys are required for all teams as for example during a penalty shootout each player has to be identified to check whether the rules of the penalty shootout are followed. An advantage of this is that at UNICONs the overall organizers will potentially pay for numbered bibs.
To not make it impossible for pickup teams we said that taped numbers on the jerseys are accepted. Thus teams only need tape and shirts of the same color to participate.
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Agreed