Competitive Sports-- a question for opinions

[Moose]

I'm fairly "new" to making posts here as I'm usually an IRC-lurker, though decided that this forum is more-so a place to ask this along with a few others considering the age-group that usually hangs out around here.

Now, the question. Competitive sports, for the sake of the argument let's say it is football (not american). This is a "league" ladder, and how this tournament is set up. The ladder is 12 divisions, each with various division administrators (or one, if need be), and 6 teams competing every (for 10 weeks) until they've played "home" and "away" against each team in their division.

Now, in order to play in this league, you need to register yourself along with some personal information and body checks before you can go out and start playing. This is called the registration process. After being registered, you're given your uniform and badge and are allowed to enter the stadium and use facilities as you see fit.

Now, the bulk of my question, since I gave you the background. Let's say that a team within Division 4 was playing another team, and then was caught using a player that was not registered at the very end of the game, after the team that had the unregistered player won by +20 points). For the sake of this argument, let's say that this team is a Japanese team, and none of their members besides their leaders speak English, so no one in the registration department was able to register their player without their leader present, and the league does not offer translations for registration.

The leader was playing in that game, and was completely unaware that one of his members was not properly registered. Afterwards, the leader sought out the division administrator and asked to register them so the game was counted. Their registration administrator refused, told them they broke the rules using someone that is not registered, and disqualified the team from the league.

Who in this scenario was right? The league or the team? Or rather, the division administrator or the leader of the team? Could a better solution have been found, was it the fault of the league for faulty checks on players, no translations at registration, or was it the fault of the leader, whose team was Division 4 (a top-tier league) and should know the rules clearly?

 

[baratron]

Of course the League is right - you can't pick and choose which rules to follow. Either you enforce the rules equally for all teams, or not.

However, there are clearly solutions which would have been less painful for all concerned.

Firstly, why was the rogue player only discovered at the end of the game? That isn't right. In competitive paintball (which is the only sport I have any knowledge of), players have to wear ID at all times and ID numbers are taken at the beginning of the game. It shouldn't be possible for a player who was unregistered to get onto the field, and the League is at fault for not ensuring this was the case.

Did the rogue player know he was supposed to register? You haven't made it clear whether he knew he was supposed to register but could not because he didn't understand the registration process, or whether he didn't know that. The League should have made it clear to the team captain that it was his responsibility to ensure that all of his players were registered. If they did, and he did not check, then he is at fault. If they did not make it clear that he should check, then the League is at fault.

I think the language issue is unfortunate, but something that cannot be helped. If it was an official English:Japanese tournament, then it would be expected that rules would be produced in both languages. If it's a general international tournament, then it would be expected that members of the League Administration would be able to translate where necessary. Otherwise, the League has no responsibility to provide translations. Again, in paintball, tournaments state in the rules what their official language/s is/are. Somehow the Russian, Ukranian, Venezualan, Spanish, Greek, French Canadian... teams all manage, even though individual team members may not speak much or any English.

There is a question, however, of how long-established both the League and this Japanese team are. If, for example, the area where the tournament is taking place has a large Japanese community, and they are the first Japanese team to have entered an otherwise-English-speaking tournament, then it would be prudent for the League to be more flexible with them. Since the recession started, many tournaments are struggling to attract enough teams, since people have less spare money available - so it would make sense not to drive away the first of many potential Japanese teams. If this was the case, then the League could have responded with "okay, we will overlook this infraction of the rules ONCE - but you must make sure that all your players are properly registered in future". And perhaps, work with the Japanese team captain to ensure that translations of the rules would be available for future Japanese teams.

 

[Moose]

Of course the League is right - you can't pick and choose which rules to follow. Either you enforce the rules equally for all teams, or not.

I agree entirely, but they were the ones at fault for properly translating everything for all players of other languages to understand the registration process.

While they might be right with the rules, they were the ones that created the situation in of itself, at least I think so.

However, there are clearly solutions which would have been less painful for all concerned.

Firstly, why was the rogue player only discovered at the end of the game? That isn't right. In competitive paintball (which is the only sport I have any knowledge of), players have to wear ID at all times and ID numbers are taken at the beginning of the game. It shouldn't be possible for a player who was unregistered to get onto the field, and the League is at fault for not ensuring this was the case.

When a home team prepares a game, they have full access to the stadium and all of its facilities. They are the ones "in power" and they can place as many people they want in the field much before the game is actually played, to practice or to scrimmage with each other, and when the game plays, the away team goes through the verification. There is a way to bypass the registration check by simply being in the stadium with your team before the league officials arrive.

The thing was that this person already had a uniform from a previous season, and that previous season happened to be extremely similar colors to the uniform everyone was already wearing (dark red, dark maroon), and no one caught it until the game finished and all persons had to go through exit verification.

Whether or not this is the fault of the league, I'm not sure, as the league only borrows the stadium and cannot have access to it so far in advance, though they should verify players already there before letting the game start.

Did the rogue player know he was supposed to register? You haven't made it clear whether he knew he was supposed to register but could not because he didn't understand the registration process, or whether he didn't know that. The League should have made it clear to the team captain that it was his responsibility to ensure that all of his players were registered. If they did, and he did not check, then he is at fault. If they did not make it clear that he should check, then the League is at fault.

He had no idea about it, or rather he was not aware he had to register again for a new season. He has registered before with aid of his captain (who can speak English).

I think the language issue is unfortunate, but something that cannot be helped. If it was an official English:Japanese tournament, then it would be expected that rules would be produced in both languages. If it's a general international tournament, then it would be expected that members of the League Administration would be able to translate where necessary. Otherwise, the League has no responsibility to provide translations. Again, in paintball, tournaments state in the rules what their official language/s is/are. Somehow the Russian, Ukranian, Venezualan, Spanish, Greek, French Canadian... teams all manage, even though individual team members may not speak much or any English.

The thing about that is, people from all over the world play in this league and the rules and other material are translated fully. What is not translated is how to register, as everyone is forced to be able to speak a common language to prevent language barriers. The registration process. Submitting your information in Japanese, for example, would be rejected.

There is a question, however, of how long-established both the League and this Japanese team are. If, for example, the area where the tournament is taking place has a large Japanese community, and they are the first Japanese team to have entered an otherwise-English-speaking tournament, then it would be prudent for the League to be more flexible with them. Since the recession started, many tournaments are struggling to attract enough teams, since people have less spare money available - so it would make sense not to drive away the first of many potential Japanese teams. If this was the case, then the League could have responded with "okay, we will overlook this infraction of the rules ONCE - but you must make sure that all your players are properly registered in future". And perhaps, work with the Japanese team captain to ensure that translations of the rules would be available for future Japanese teams.

For this, the league itself is English, based in the United Kingdom. They play in UK territory, and the away team was a Japanese team that entered the league out of the sport of the game and after being recommended. There was a fairly small community of Japanese speakers watching the game in the UK, but a large amount were watching in Japan.

Now you might ask-- why was the away team there early instead of the home team? Because that particular week the japanese team was considered "home".