FHumpires.com
Pan Am Indoor Cup 2010 - the Umpire’s Briefing
August 10 2010
The umpire’s briefing for this tournament was a lengthy one. With the exception of one umpire (Gus Soteriades of the US) none of the umpires had done any indoor matches since February or March, so it was good to discuss the subtle nuances of the indoor game.
The subject that garnered considerable discussion revolved around management and the use of cards. Indoor hockey can be very fast and with such a limited playing time there are some things to consider when using cards. It was first noted that we were not using the 2-minute green card as this has not yet been officially adopted as a rule. Yellow cards are already 2 minutes and so I don’t see this coming into the indoor game any time soon (unless they change yellows to 5 minutes to accommodate the greens).
There was considerable discussion on what to do about a player receiving multiple cards, for example 2 greens or two yellows. It is possible for a player to receive a green for breaking early on a penalty corner, for instance, as well as for dissent. However, should a player receive a yellow card instead of the second green? What about a player receiving two yellow cards? Should that also be a red card?
Let’s get to yellows first. It was agreed upon quite early that physical fouls and fouls that break-down play would be dealt with quickly and severely. Yellow cards issued for these types of fouls would be a minimum of 5 minutes, not the obligatory 2 minutes. If a player received a second yellow card for the same type of foul, that second yellow would be followed immediately by a red card. The reason for this is for disciplinary reasons; a straight red card would be considered differently than one issued after a second yellow.
Working back to green cards then, a second offence after being issued a green card previously for a similar foul would be a yellow card. There would be no need to show the green first because for post game disciplinary reasons it wouldn’t be necessary. The yellow would also be shown to anyone from the same team as the initial offender, something that did happen during my first match of the tournament between the United States and Uruguay. A player was green carded (and drew a Penalty Corner) for not retreating 3 meters, and one of his team-mates committed the same foul later in the match for which I gave him a 2-minute yellow card and another Penalty Corner against.
The other point that was stressed (although not the only one) was for us to try to use our whistle as little as possible; to only intervene when necessary and encourage players to play through and contest as much as safely possible.
